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Headline News:

• “Trump Killed Climate.gov Last Summer. Scientists Have Just Brought It Back” • Last summer, Trump shuttered climate.gov, NOAA’s portal on climate science. Now a team of roughly eighty volunteer scientists and former NOAA staffers has resurrected climate.gov as the nonprofit climate.us, crowdfunded with over $321,000 in donations. [Gizmodo]

Atmospheric river (NOAA, public domain)

• “Power From Here: Most Of Humanity Already Lives Where Solar And Wind Are Strongest” • Most of the world is already rich in the two energy sources we need to decarbonize fast: sun and wind. The global shift to renewables is not constrained by resource scarcity, but by whether planning and investment move fast enough. [CleanTechnica]
• “Europe’s Record Heatwave Is Shifting East” • Europe is still going through its most severe heatwave on record, with all-time highs shattered by temperatures across the continent. The death toll is more than 1,300. Now the heat is shifting east towards the Balkans and Ukraine, and Ukraine’s war-damaged power grid is bracing for the heat’s next phase. [Euronews]
• “Solar Power: From Intermittent To Reliable Power” • Global solar demand is growing dramatically. China is by far the largest investor in solar PV generation and the largest producer of solar panels. In contrast to many other markets, solar truly is a global growth industry, now representing over 40% of the investment in global power generation. [McKinsey & Company]
• “Duke Energy Latest Company to Accept Trump’s Dirty ‘Deal’ to Scrap Offshore Wind” • Duke Energy accepted $129 million in taxpayer money to end an offshore wind lease. The company is the latest to accept such an offer from the Interior Department. California and northeastern states are suing the US government over such agreements. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Berdasarkan informasi yang beredar, ROYALGACOR memperkenalkan diri sebagai platform hiburan daring yang menyediakan berbagai kategori permainan, mulai dari permainan bergaya slot hingga layanan lain yang berkaitan dengan taruhan digital. Dalam materi yang dipublikasikan, platform tersebut mencantumkan sejumlah fitur seperti permainan kasino, sportsbook, layanan pelanggan, serta sistem transaksi bagi pengguna.

Namun, keberadaan sebuah platform daring tidak hanya dapat dinilai dari daftar fitur yang ditampilkan. Faktor lain seperti transparansi pengelola, keamanan data, legalitas operasional, serta rekam jejak layanan menjadi bagian penting yang perlu diperiksa oleh masyarakat.

Pemeriksaan Informasi Menjadi Langkah Utama

Dalam perkembangan industri layanan daring, tampilan profesional dan banyaknya fitur belum selalu menjadi indikator utama tingkat kepercayaan sebuah platform. Beberapa layanan berbasis internet dapat menggunakan strategi pemasaran yang menonjolkan kemudahan akses maupun berbagai fasilitas, tetapi pengguna tetap perlu melakukan verifikasi secara mandiri.

Salah satu pemeriksa situs pihak ketiga, ScamAdviser, memberikan catatan berbeda terhadap beberapa domain yang menggunakan nama serupa ROYALGACOR. Salah satu domain mendapatkan peringatan terkait sejumlah faktor seperti identitas pemilik yang tidak terlihat, usia domain, serta indikator yang dianggap perlu diperhatikan sebelum digunakan.

Temuan tersebut tidak secara otomatis membuktikan suatu layanan bermasalah, tetapi menjadi pengingat bahwa pemeriksaan keamanan tetap diperlukan, terutama ketika pengguna diminta memberikan data pribadi atau melakukan transaksi keuangan.

Keamanan Data dan Transaksi Jadi Perhatian

Salah satu aspek yang sering menjadi sorotan dalam platform daring adalah perlindungan informasi pengguna. Data seperti identitas akun, metode pembayaran, hingga riwayat aktivitas merupakan informasi yang memiliki nilai penting.

Pengguna disarankan memahami bagaimana sebuah platform mengelola data, apakah memiliki kebijakan privasi yang jelas, serta bagaimana mekanisme perlindungan yang diterapkan. Selain itu, penggunaan kata sandi yang kuat dan kewaspadaan terhadap tautan tidak resmi juga menjadi langkah dasar dalam menjaga keamanan akun.

Memahami Klaim dan Realitas di Lapangan

ROYALGACOR menampilkan berbagai klaim mengenai pengalaman bermain, variasi permainan, hingga layanan yang tersedia bagi pengguna. Namun, klaim promosi perlu dibedakan dengan informasi yang dapat diverifikasi secara independen.

Dalam praktiknya, setiap layanan berbasis permainan berisiko memiliki tantangan tersendiri, termasuk risiko kerugian finansial, ketergantungan penggunaan, maupun penyalahgunaan data apabila keamanan tidak diperhatikan.

Karena itu, pemahaman terhadap mekanisme layanan, aturan penggunaan, serta batasan pribadi menjadi bagian penting sebelum seseorang memutuskan menggunakan sebuah platform.

Kesimpulan

ROYALGACOR menjadi salah satu nama yang menarik perhatian dalam pembahasan mengenai platform permainan daring. Informasi mengenai fitur dan layanan memang tersedia, tetapi pengguna tetap perlu melakukan pemeriksaan lebih lanjut terkait keamanan, kredibilitas, dan transparansi sebelum mengambil keputusan.

Di tengah perkembangan layanan berbasis internet yang semakin luas, sikap kritis dan kemampuan memilah informasi menjadi faktor utama agar pengguna dapat memahami sebuah platform secara lebih menyeluruh, bukan hanya berdasarkan tampilan atau klaim yang ditawarkan.

Governments are holding “critical” talks this week on a global treaty to curb plastic pollution, as some countries and activists warn that key issues – including measures to rein in soaring plastic production – are being sidelined.

Diplomats are meeting in person in Nairobi for the first time since negotiations were suspended in chaos nearly a year ago, stymied by a long-running deadlock that pits petrostates against more ambitious nations over the reach of the UN pact.

Because nearly all plastic is made from planet-heating oil, gas and coal, the sector’s trajectory will have a major influence on global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The four-day informal gathering, which begins on Tuesday, has been billed by the chair of the talks, Chilean ambassador Julio Cordano, as a “brainstorming” session in which countries are invited to put forward possible solutions to some of the treaty negotiations’ most divisive elements.

Cordano is expected to distill those views in a new document intended to serve as the basis for a new draft text of the future treaty, which governments would take up at the next official round of negotiations, scheduled for March 13-24, 2027.

Two earlier rounds, each billed as the final one, ended without agreement, derailed largely by a standoff over how the treaty should address plastic production, which the UN says is set to triple by 2060 without intervention.

Production curbs in the spotlight

Large fossil fuel and petrochemical producers, led by Saudi Arabia, the United States, Russia and India, have repeatedly argued that the treaty should focus only on managing plastic waste. A US State Department spokesperson told Climate Home News that Washington supports “practical, cost-effective solutions” to plastic pollution, while opposing “global plastic bans”.

A majority of countries – including most European, Latin American, African and Pacific island nations -want to limit the manufacturing of plastic to “sustainable levels”, but have not pushed for any wide-ranging ban. 

• Jun 22, 2026 Comment China’s coal-chemicals boom risks repeating the mistakes of the past By reviving the problematic industry in the name of energy security, China runs the risk of higher emissions, stranded assets and setting back its ambitions as a clean energy leader Read more
• Mar 18, 2026 News Roadmap launched to restart deadlocked UN plastics treaty talks The chair of the negotiations proposes informal meetings through 2026 to bridge deep divisions among countries, following the collapse of talks in Geneva last year Read more

Ahead of what it described as “critical” talks in Nairobi, the French government said last week it had already shown flexibility and “significantly scaled back” its initial ambitions. But a French official told a meeting of EU environment ministers that without an explicit reference to the “unsustainable nature” of plastic production, the treaty would be “fundamentally unbalanced, ineffective and, worse still, could set us on the wrong path for decades to come”.

In a separate written communication, the French government lamented that informal meetings held in recent months have given “disproportionate visibility to the positions of the least ambitious states”, fuelling a “risk that partial agreements may be reached only on the issues with the broadest consensus”.

Dennis Clare, a negotiator for the Pacific island nation of Micronesia, told Climate Home News that “if we fail to address any key elements”, including overproduction, the impacts of the plastic crisis on the climate, human health and ecosystems will only grow more severe. 

Fears over “political calculations”

Despite such concerns, plastics production is not mentioned in the wide-ranging list of topics Cordano has drafted for the meeting – an omission that has alarmed observers.

Christina Dixon, a campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said there appeared to be an attempt to write off this crucial element of the treaty as “too complicated and politically unviable”.

David Azoulay, environmental health programme director at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said the meeting’s proposed structure was “highly concerning”. He accused the chair of “making political calculations in favour of potential short-term wins” and aiming to deliver a treaty “based on the lowest common denominator”.

UN asks AI companies to reveal full environmental impacts

Speaking to journalists last week, Cordano pushed back, insisting that “no topic is off the table” and inviting countries to bring whatever proposals they judged necessary for a successful outcome.

He added that the treaty could not be allowed to settle for just any level of ambition, and that he would not be happy with an outcome at all costs.

“This is what makes it so difficult and complex,” said Cordano, who was elected in February after his predecessor’s resignation. Countries “are trying to be creative” in finding solutions, he explained, because “the road to the objective of our work might not be so obvious”.

The post UN plastics pact talks restart amid fears production curbs will be left out appeared first on Climate Home News.

Tomás Ayala leaps off the side of a small dinghy and into the dark swell of water. His arms slice through the waves like a cutlass as he dives deep into the bay off the southeastern coast of the Puerto Rican island of Culebra. Armed with a spear gun, Ayala swims even deeper as he scans the perimeter of the reef for his target. It doesn’t take long. Mere seconds later, a cloud of blood darkens the water around a large hogfish — proof enough that he found his mark. He snatches up his catch and makes for the surface. 

Back safely on his boat, Ayala drops the reef fish into a cooler, guns the motor, and heads for shore. It’s late Wednesday afternoon in mid-May. Ayala has been out since before dawn. The 50-year-old hails from a family of fishers — he started free diving for reef fish, laying lobster traps, and catching octopus when he was just eight years old, following in the footsteps of his brother and grandfather. Before long, he arrives at his destination — a concrete dock leading to a villa pesquera, a “fishing village” or “fish landing center,” a site with key infrastructure for Culebra’s community of traditional fisherfolk. Inside are cleaning stations, freezers, a saltwater tank for storing lobsters, a mélange of other equipment, and a bustling market. 

The villa pesquera provides the equipment dozens of local fishers need to sustain their work, and also a space to convene: Every week, the association that co-manages the space comes together for updates and to share their challenges and successes.

Ayala is greeted by Nicolás Gómez Andújar, a marine scientist whose dad is a local fisher, and they prepare the space for their next gathering. The members will discuss the federal permits they’re hoping to get for a native oyster farm, the effort to clear droves of abandoned fishing gear from Culebra’s seabed, and anything else someone may want to bring to the group. While they talk, they’ll eat a seafood mofongo, a popular shrimp-and-plantain dish.

Ayala and Pedro Gómez drive a boat off the coast of the island-municipality of Culebra. Nelson Vega Oliveras / 9 Millones

For decades, Culebra’s villa pesquera lay dormant, an abandoned facility shut down by the Puerto Rican government in 2002 because of political infighting, loss of government funding, and conflict between local fishers. In 2021, when Ayala and Gómez Andújar decided they wanted to resurrect it, dozens of their friends, neighbors, and local businesses donated time and labor to restore the dilapidated structure. It took roughly four years of organizing, fundraising, and securing permits for it all to come together. 

Last October, they formally reopened the fish market to much fanfare. Hundreds of people, on an island home to less than 2,000, showed up to help celebrate. They ate, laughed, and danced together. “We created what we dreamed of,” said Ayala. 

Hidden behind their success, however, lies a story of entrenched government divides and a growing need to rehaul how fishers are represented across the Puerto Rican government. The very survival of small-scale fishing and its unsung role in Puerto Rico’s food system depends on it — especially in the face of climate change, as rising temperatures make it harder and harder to fish for a living.

Ayala fishes for sardines following small-scale and artisanal practices. Nelson Vega Oliveras/9 Millones

In the early to mid-1960s, amid a push to modernize commercial fishing boats and docking facilities, the Puerto Rican government formally established villas pesqueras, turning informal fishing spots into regulated, communal spaces. In 1979, Corporación para el Desarrollo y Administración de los Recursos Marinos, Lacustres, y Fluviales, or CODREMAR, the centralized agency tasked with handling all research, education, and conservation efforts related to commercial fishing, was born.

By the early ‘80s, the government began promoting the implementation of “fisher associations,” or organized local groups tasked with controlling their own seafood sales — partly to break up emerging seafood monopolies — and co-managing the villas pesqueras alongside municipalities. What happened next is not well documented. Research by University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez social anthropologist Manuel Valdés-Pizzini has found fishers still struggled to keep control of the landing centers because of political infighting and dwindling institutional support — the same dynamics that ultimately led to the closure of Culebra’s fishing village.

“There is a lot of politics in this,” said Valdés-Pizzini. “The landing center is just one piece of infrastructure in the whole fishery, culture, and society.”

In 1990, CODREMAR was dissolved after the Puerto Rican government deemed its oversight of the fishing sector inefficient, leaving its core responsibilities to be divvied up between two agencies — Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture and Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. Nowadays, experts and fishers alike say the governance of the industry in Puerto Rico is little more than a patchwork, piecemeal approach splintered across just about every layer of government. Villas pesqueras are typically co-managed by local fishing associations, independent fishers or businesses, municipalities, and the Department of Agriculture. Some of the equipment inside, such as storage lockers, is overseen by the Department of Agriculture, and fishers’ licenses, boat ramps, and other permitting approvals are largely regulated by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. 

The list of government stakeholders and regulators also includes the Puerto Rican Department of Economic Development and Commerce, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Caribbean Fishery Management Council, the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office, and the Puerto Rico Planning Board, among others. For the fishers who are trying to adapt to global warming, such as those in Culebra, the red tape just gets in the way.

A forthcoming analysis by The Nature Conservancy Puerto Rico, previewed exclusively by Grist and 9 Millones, found that the burdens of this existing regulatory process as it relates to marine aquaculture “can be disproportionately high for small-scale producers.” Permits and authorizations are not only notoriously unwieldy for small fishers, but can also cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, according to the report. For some, as in the case of traditional shellfish farmers, the upfront and operating costs can be far more than what their peers in other parts of the U.S. pay.

Puerto Rico’s fishing sector also differs from the rest of the U.S. in that it’s primarily made up of small-scale, artisanal fishers rather than industrial-scale operations. Fisheries account for a marginal slice of the archipelago’s economy. Commercial fishing falls within Puerto Rico’s agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector, which accounted for just 0.69 percent of Puerto Rico’s gross domestic product in 2024. Yet in the most vulnerable island communities, where food is almost exclusively imported, poverty rates are more than double the national U.S. average, and resources are scarce, the expansion of local fishing could serve as the cornerstone of long-term food security and sovereignty. 

A recent report found that just 12 villas pesqueras contribute more than $3 million every year to Puerto Rico’s economy. And that contribution is poised to grow, as more fishers advocate for a streamlined permitting system, better industry and cultural valuations for small-scale operators, and a centralized regulatory landscape overseen by one government office. Without those changes, they face an uncertain future. 

“Fishers are embedded in this complex web with the Department of Agriculture and Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. These different governmental institutions, they don’t seem to be talking to each other. There’s a disconnection,” said Luis Alexis Rodríguez Cruz, a food systems researcher and science communicator who works with the Caribbean Agroecology Institute on fisheries. “In Spanish we say, ‘Entre la espada y la pared’ — between the sword and the wall. It’s like, you want to do something, because this agency is requiring you to do [it], often this other agency is not requiring it, or somewhat counters it.”

An aerial view of the fishing village in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, which includes an area for processing the catch of the day and a fish market. Nelson Vega Oliveras/9 Millones

Even as distrust between fishers and the government deepens, the effects of climate change are pushing fishers toward that very system for relief. 

Rising seas driven by a warming planet have continued to encroach upon shorelines, wetlands, and coastal infrastructure throughout Puerto Rico. Erosion has been identified in more than a third of Puerto Rico’s beaches. The situation is so dire that in 2023, the Puerto Rican government declared a state of emergency over the issue, a move that included earmarking $105 million in federal funds to implement nearly two dozen measures to minimize the effects. Late last month, Puerto Rico’s Governor Jenniffer González-Colón declared yet another state of emergency over coastal erosion. On May 27, days before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, González-Colón signed an executive order that described the “critical condition” of erosion as only having “accelerated” because of rising sea levels, storm surges, atmospheric phenomena, and the landscape vulnerability of several Puerto Rican coastal communities. 

Since 1901, the average ocean temperature around Puerto Rico has increased by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit. This has scrambled the region’s marine biodiversity — killing off coral reefs and seagrass, shifting which species are more abundant, and affecting the quality of the catch. But the surging frequency of intensified hurricanes hitting the Caribbean remains the biggest climate stressor for Puerto Rico’s fishing sector. 

In 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico as a Category 5 storm, devastating the archipelago and plunging parts of it into close to a year without power. The hurricane was also devastating for small fisheries, which lost an estimated $17.8 million in damaged gear, boats, and shoreside infrastructure, including villas pesqueras. Following the storm, the Puerto Rican government set out to rebuild and reconstruct the fishing hubs with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NOAA, but quickly ran into issues. Aid was repeatedly delayed. Some fisherfolk didn’t receive any federal support for years and were forced to operate in makeshift markets. Others rebuilt, bit by bit, on their own dime. 

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Although no official record of how many structures were lost to the storm currently exists, a 2026 survey by the nonprofit Conservación ConCiencia found that 41 villas pesqueras are actively selling seafood, down from approximately 63 in the ‘80s, and the conditions of those facilities vary widely. The number of total active villages is unknown to the Puerto Rican government. The Department of Natural and Environmental Resources told Grist in an email that the agency currently has 1,646 “bonafide and licensed fishermen on record.” However, there tends to be discrepancies between the number of fishers licensed and those that show up in government data captured by multiple agencies.  

In the small beach town of Ceiba, which hugs the eastern tip of Puerto Rico’s mainland, Beverly Román Figueroa and her partner Ernesto Correa Torres have been fighting battle after battle with local authorities over their villa pesquera — battles that began when Maria hit. 

After the storm severely damaged Ceiba’s fishing hub, Román Figueroa says they were told by the mayor that the municipality had been allocated a little over $124,000 of Federal Emergency Management Agency aid to pay for the repairs. But when she and Correa Torres would visit the site — even as late as 2023, after a lengthy contract dispute over the villa pesquera’s management — they found little evidence that any work had been done. Photos and videos taken in March of 2023 show destroyed pipes and waterlogged floors and walls — a largely unusable space. 

“What they handed me was a neglected property,” said Correa Torres in Spanish. “This isn’t mine; this belongs to the people of Puerto Rico and to the fishermen.”

In Puerto Rico, fishing is a trade passed down through generations. Nelson Vega Oliveras / 9 Millones

For months, their requests for repairs went unanswered by local and federal officials. (The Department of Agriculture sent representatives at one point to conduct an on-site inspection, Román Figueroa says, but the visit resulted in “no real action.”) Tired of waiting and needing to generate income, the duo invested more than $60,000 of their own money into fixing up the villa pesquera. They even collaborated with Conservación ConCiencia and Hispanic Federation to get solar panels installed on the fish market for cleaner, cheaper power. 

Three years later, the structure and its facilities — storage lockers, the boat ramp, and the floating dock — are always accessible to local fishers. Its new restaurant, Pescaderia y Restaurante ANSI, is open four days a week. Román Figueroa whips up piping hot meals like sancocho de tiburón, a traditional stew made from the shark that Correa Torres hauls in from the sea. He is president of ANSI, the company made up of local fishers who manage the villa; she, the secretary and resident cook. Their children also help out — their daughter works in the market, and their son is also a fisher. 

“It was a disaster … but little by little, we got it back up and running,” said Román Figueroa in Spanish. The government, she says, had no part in that. “Despite everything we have done at the villa, we have worked alone.”

A sign reads, “Warning, ramp for exclusive use by commercial fishers” in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. Nelson Vega Oliveras/9 Millones

Ariam Torres Cordero, an environmental planner and assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, has visited at least 15 of the archipelago’s villas pesqueras in the last two years to begin mapping the current state of the fishing industry. Together with Valdés-Pizzini, he is setting out to change the fact that the government has no official account of the current conditions of the fishing hubs in Puerto Rico. “You can see, already, the deterioration, even despite the fact that they were reconstructed less than eight years ago. You can already see the impacts of coastal erosion,” said Torres Cordero. 

Puerto Rico’s governance of the sector has made fishers more vulnerable to these threats — not less. This is most apparent in the bungled rebuilding of the dozens of villas pesqueras destroyed by Maria. Fisher communities across the archipelago still report being unable to access federal aid to repair storm-ravaged facilities and equipment. 

An audit published in January 2025 by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Commerce found that Puerto Rico’s government had distributed only around 7 percent of the $11.4 million in disaster assistance funds earmarked for fisheries since April 2020 and had completed just 4 of 17 designated restoration projects. 

Puerto Rico Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources Waldemar Quiles Pérez did not address Grist and 9 Millones’ requests for clarification on the severe delays revealed in the audit or provide updates on the agency’s aid disbursement. “All of the fishing spaces around the Island are either privately owned or are administer[ed] by the Department of Agriculture,” Quiles Pérez said in a written statement. 

Puerto Rico’s Department of Agriculture did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Not only was the allocation of the aid itself riddled with delays and discrepancies, Torres Cordero pointed out, but what little money the federal government distributed for post-disaster rebuilding of villas pesqueras wasn’t used to rebuild in a way that accounts for the effects of climate change on fishing infrastructure. That much is obvious in how many of the facilities are already falling apart. By building back the structures just as they were designed decades ago, “we’re bound for another situation where we’re going to end up with most of this infrastructure being basically destroyed,” said Torres Cordero. “It’s not sustainable just to keep rebuilding the same.” 

With this in mind, he is trying to figure out how to minimize the risk of future storm and erosion damage while still allowing the fishing facilities to remain near the sea. The answer, he believes, lies in reimagining parts of the villa pesquera design itself to be both more durable and, where it makes the most sense, even mobile. 

Torres Cordero himself is recruiting the help of architecture, landscape, and social work students to come up with a new blueprint for a more “climate-proof” structure. “We need to decide, ‘What things do we need permanently placed in a location? And then what things should be mobile?’ And then design around that,” he said. 

A villa pesquera isn’t a simple building, however. The freezers and areas where fish are cleaned and prepared, for example, often require heavy equipment that would be too complex to move ahead of a storm. On the other hand, a fish market or dock could be designed to be mobile. (The Puerto Rican government, for its part, did try to do some version of this following Hurricane Maria by installing temporary floating docks in a handful of locations, which Torres Cordero says have proven not to be very durable or functional.) 

The pilot project is focused on the island of Vieques, another of Puerto Rico’s smaller island municipalities home to many traditional fishers. The work is in its infancy  — it only started coming together last summer – and Torres Cordero hasn’t yet secured the funding and capacity needed to move it forward. Several outside factors have also contributed to grounding the project before it’s really begun. In September, the fishers they were just beginning to collaborate with in Vieques were suddenly faced with the deployment of U.S. troops to the island, which the military considered a strategic position in its tensions with Venezuela. Vieques still bears the lasting environmental toll of decades of bombing by the U.S. Navy, which used much of the island for military practice. That included the navy’s regular disposal of unknown contaminants in the waters surrounding Vieques, polluting its fishing stock and marine ecosystems. Then, in April, students at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras went on strike, calling for the resignation of the university president, Zayira Jordán Conde, over her controversial decisions having to do with widespread research and staffing cuts.

“All of that fell apart,” said Torres Cordero. “Right now, we are playing the waiting game.” 

As the ocean temperature rises, fishers are forced to go to deeper waters. Nelson Vega Oliveras/9 Millones

The fishers in Culebra are as ready as they can be for the next calamitous storm. That’s thanks to the more than two dozen solar panels lining the villa pesquera’s roof, the hurricane-proof windows found throughout the blue-and-white building, and a rainwater harvesting system ensuring a backup water supply. These are small but mighty ways fisherfolk there have already sought to better fortify themselves against the many climate-borne stressors assailing their sector. In doing so, they’ve also bolstered their island community’s defenses against food insecurity when the next hurricane or flood tears through Puerto Rico. 

Following Maria, Puerto Rico’s fishers mobilized to feed their neighbors. In Culebra, Ayala remembers how, after the hurricane left the island without electricity for half a year, the local seafood supply chain collapsed entirely. To meet the need, as fishers struggled with damaged gear and lack of power, and the community waited on external food aid that just didn’t come, Ayala organized an informal system. He collected fish from other fishermen, set up a makeshift area to clean the catch, and knocked on doors to sell directly to people. The grassroots effort underscored the need for a more resilient system, catalyzing the formation of the fishing association and restoration of their home base — the villa pesquera. 

Even though fishing only makes up a marginal slice of Puerto Rico’s economy, it’s clear that Culebra is better for the work that Ayala and Gómez Andújar are doing. For a community where about a quarter of residents live below the poverty line, a primary indicator of food insecurity, building a robust local supply chain and bolstering their resilience against environmental degradation isn’t merely an aspiration, but a survival strategy. So in 2020, Gómez Andújar and local environmental scientist Megan Considine set out to create another pillar of that vision — the only permitted oyster farm in Puerto Rico. 

“Climate change is, of course, this unpredictable threat. And it’s chronic, and it’s there,” Gómez Andújar said. “To a certain extent, we need to flow with it. We need to adapt. We need to mitigate.” 

Culebra fishers are prepared for an incoming storm and regular power outages in part by the more than two dozen solar panels installed on the roof of the villa pesquera.
Nelson Vega Oliveras / 9 Millones

Though the oyster farm is currently grant-funded, with only research permits, local fishers like Ayala view farming native shellfish as a way to spark future generations’ interest in careers in fishing and diversify the seafood supply chain operating out of Culebra’s villa pesquera. But in order to keep it running through the next few years, they’ll need to commercialize the farm. Everything was moving in the right direction — until late last month. 

Much of their farm’s federal compliance suddenly hinged on an Army Corps of Engineers permit at risk of expiring. Rather than chance violations, they made the difficult decision to, at least temporarily, shut down roughly half of their operations while awaiting that clearance. “It’s demoralizing,” said Gómez Andújar. “The main message, really, is we’re doing the best we can to do everything right, and it’s still very, very, very hard.” 

After their yearslong effort to restore Culebra’s fishing village, Gómez Andújar and Ayala are buried under layers of bureaucracy, yet again. The road ahead looks much like the road behind. 

“We show people how to live from the ocean, how to grow food from the ocean,” says Ayala. Fishing represents so much more to Ayala than just a job — it’s the foundation of Puerto Rico’s food-sovereign, climate-resilient future. “And the government is the biggest barrier.”

Filmmaker Nelson Vega Oliveras contributed reporting. 9 Millones’ Laura M. Quintero contributed editing.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline For Puerto Rico’s fishers, climate change isn’t the only challenge — being left to adapt alone is another on Jun 30, 2026.

No city dealing with a lot of lead pipes spends as much as Chicago does to replace them. 

With more than 400,000 lead water service lines, Chicago has the largest known inventory of lead pipes of any city in the country. Officials say replacing each one costs about $31,000 on average — more than six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s national estimate of $4,700 a line.

Grist, WBEZ, and Inside Climate News surveyed other cities with the most lead service lines in the country — including Detroit, Milwaukee, and New York — about the cost of fully replacing a lead service line. The 18 that responded provided averages between $6,000 and $25,000, with most less than half of Chicago’s figure. Engineering firm CDM Smith, which works with cities across the country, pegs the national average at $12,500 per line. 

Now, with a federal mandate to remove every lead pipe within roughly 20 years, Chicago is facing a daunting timeline and an astronomical price tag. Replacing the city’s inventory at the current rate will cost more than $12 billion. 

“It is absurd,” said Cyndi Roper, a senior policy advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s safe water initiative. “You can’t play victim to your own policies. … You actually can make changes to bring the cost down.”

A review over seven months of hundreds of pages of program documents and contracts, plus dozens of interviews with city officials, policy experts, contractors, and homeowners, found several key contributors. The most significant include inefficient early contracts, cumbersome permitting requirements, and the city’s reliance on one-off replacements rather than undertaking whole blocks at once.

A glaring lack of clarity from the Department of Water Management, which oversees the city’s replacement program, has also made it difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for the high cost. Its officials were unable to provide Grist, WBEZ, and Inside Climate News with consistent figures for replacement costs and the number of lines replaced, or make clear whether the water department is tracking these costs systematically.

“It seems like the story here is how hard you have to work to get information that’s needed in order to figure out why the costs are so high,” Roper added.

More in this series

• Chicago residents risk daily lead exposure from toxic pipes. Replacing them will take decades.
• Chicago was supposed to warn residents about toxic lead pipes last year. Most still have no idea.
• Chicago has the most lead pipes in the nation. We mapped them all.

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson said in an emailed statement that he is committed to accelerating replacements and minimizing the burden to residents, but did not respond to specific questions about the city’s unusually high costs. 

“The Johnson administration is working across departments in coordination with local, state, and federal partners to accelerate replacements, streamline processes, and maximize every available dollar so more residents can access safe, reliable drinking water,” said the statement. 

Officials with the water department said they see some room to bring expenses down as work ramps up. But they’ve also disagreed with outside experts who say Chicago’s high costs are unreasonable, and they don’t appear to be treating the drastic cost differential with other cities as a high priority to address.

“There’s a lot of people that claim they know lead service line replacement,” said a senior official with the water department, who spoke with Grist, WBEZ, and Inside Climate News on the condition of not being named. “They don’t know what they’re talking about.” 

Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who has been working to secure federal funding for lead service line replacements across the state, said she wasn’t aware of the cost discrepancy but hoped the city would be transparent with the public about why costs are so high. 

“Cities just need to get their act together and get this done, and we’ve been slow to do this in Chicago,” Duckworth said. “Other cities have moved much faster than us.”

Replacing pipes on an entire block

Chicago replaces lead service lines through several programs, including emergency repairs, capital improvement projects, and equity initiatives targeting low-income neighborhoods and daycares.

It also replaces entire blocks of lead pipes at once. But that program accounted for just 3 percent of the approximately 15,000 lines swapped out between 2021 and the end of 2025, according to analysis of city replacement data by Grist, WBEZ, and Inside Climate News. Instead, nearly all of those lines were fixed piecemeal, mostly when crews were sent out to fix leaks and breaks. 

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To rename a legend // entry, change its `label` here only — you do NOT need to touch the embedded data. const series = [ { key: 'Breaks and Leaks', label: 'Breaks and leaks', color: COLORS.TURQUOISE }, { key: 'CIP Sewer and Water Main', label: 'Sewer and water main', color: COLORS.ORANGE }, { key: 'Equity', label: 'Equity', color: COLORS.FUCHSIA }, { key: 'Homeowner Initiated', label: 'Homeowner-initiated', color: COLORS.BLUEY }, { key: 'Block Level LSLR', label: 'Block-level', color: COLORS.EARTH }, { key: 'Daycare', label: 'Daycare', color: COLORS.RED }, ]; const programs = series.map(s => s.key); const colors = series.map(s => s.color); const labelByKey = Object.fromEntries(series.map(s => [s.key, s.label])); const dataByProgram = programs.map(program => { const programData = rawData .filter(d => d.program === program) .map(d => ({ date: new Date(d.month + '-01'), replacements: +d.replacements })) .sort((a, b) => a.date - b.date); return { program, data: programData }; }); const margin = { top: 20, right: 20, bottom: 50, left: window.innerWidth < 600 ? 35 : 45 }; function renderChart() { svg.selectAll('*').remove(); legend.selectAll('*').remove(); const node = svg.node(); const styleWidth = parseInt(svg.style('width')); const containerWidth = node ? node.getBoundingClientRect().width : (isNaN(styleWidth) ? 600 : styleWidth); const width = containerWidth - margin.left - margin.right; const height = initialSvgHeight - margin.top - margin.bottom; const x = d3.scaleTime().range([0, width]); const y = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); const line = d3.line() .curve(d3.curveMonotoneX) .x(d => x(d.date)) .y(d => y(d.replacements)); const allDates = rawData.map(d => new Date(d.month + '-01')); const maxReplacements = d3.max(rawData, d => d.replacements); x.domain(d3.extent(allDates)); y.domain([0, maxReplacements]); svg.attr('height', initialSvgHeight); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(d3.timeMonth.every(6)).tickSize(-height).tickFormat('')); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(5).tickSize(-width).tickFormat('')); const xAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(d3.timeMonth.every(6)).tickFormat(d3.timeFormat('%b \'%y'))) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'lead-replacements__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT) .style('text-anchor', 'end') .attr('transform', 'rotate(-45)'); const yAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(5).tickFormat(d => formatCompactWithB(d))) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'lead-replacements__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT); svg.append('g').call(xAxis); svg.append('g').call(yAxis); const chart = svg.append('g').attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`); const linePairs = dataByProgram.map((programData, i) => { if (programData.data.length > 0) { const whiteLine = chart.append('path') .datum(programData.data) .attr('class', 'line') .attr('d', line) .style('stroke', 'white') .style('stroke-width', 5.5) .style('opacity', 1) .style('stroke-linecap', 'round') .style('stroke-linejoin', 'round'); const coloredLine = chart.append('path') .datum(programData.data) .attr('class', 'line') .attr('d', line) .style('stroke', colors[i]) .style('stroke-width', 3.5) .style('opacity', 1) .style('transition', 'opacity 0.2s ease') .style('stroke-linecap', 'round') .style('stroke-linejoin', 'round'); return { white: whiteLine, colored: coloredLine }; } return null; }).filter(d => d !== null); const legendItems = legend.selectAll('.legend-item') .data(dataByProgram.filter(d => d.data.length > 0)) .enter() .append('div') .attr('class', 'legend-item') .on('mouseover', function(event, d) { const programIndex = programs.indexOf(d.program); linePairs.forEach((pair, i) => { if (i === programIndex) { pair.white.node().parentNode.appendChild(pair.white.node()); pair.colored.node().parentNode.appendChild(pair.colored.node()); pair.white.style('opacity', 1); pair.colored.style('opacity', 1); } else { pair.white.style('opacity', 0.3); pair.colored.style('opacity', 0.3); } }); }) .on('mouseout', function(event, d) { linePairs.forEach(pair => { pair.white.style('opacity', 1); pair.colored.style('opacity', 1); }); }); legendItems.append('div') .attr('class', 'legend-color') .style('background-color', d => colors[programs.indexOf(d.program)]); legendItems.append('span') .text(d => labelByKey[d.program] ? labelByKey[d.program] : d.program); } if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', renderChart); } else { renderChart(); } window.addEventListener('resize', renderChart); })();

Both city officials and experts agree that replacing lead pipes a full block at a time is cheaper. In Milwaukee, the per-line cost to replace a full neighborhood is nearly $2,000 less than a one-off replacement. Chicago officials say they want to ramp up blockwide replacements, but there have been legal and logistical barriers to expanding that program. 

In Illinois, property owners control half the service line, and the municipality is responsible for the other. State law forbids partial line replacement because the process can flush more lead into drinking water, and municipalities willing to replace private lines must first get the property owners’ permission. That’s harder and more time-consuming than it may seem, a key reason for the city’s low number of block replacements, according to officials.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers introduced a new bill at the water department’s request to fix that, granting city plumbers access to private lines without the owner’s permission. It passed in May and now awaits Governor JB Pritzker’s signature.

“We need to accelerate, as much as humanly possible, this process,” said state Senator Ram Villivalam of Chicago, a co-sponsor of the bill. 

A Chicago resident holds a lead water test kit from the city. Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times

Still, it’s not clear how much block-level replacements will actually decrease Chicago’s costs. Water department officials pegged the average per-line cost for block-level work, which they have said is their cheapest program, at approximately $34,000, and the average for one-off replacements at $39,000. Both figures are well above the $31,000 overall average that department officials have cited.

Asked to explain how that could be, the water department did not respond. In her last email to the news organizations in May, water department spokesperson Megan Vidis said she would not answer any more questions on the topic.

The toll on homeowners

Any lead pipe a property owner replaces on their own is one the city doesn’t have to pay for. But some homeowners are finding that far harder than they imagined — in part because of the city’s prohibitively expensive and complex permitting process. 

Craig Hines and his wife, homeowners in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood, discovered they had a lead service line last summer when they received a letter from the city. They were immediately alarmed. They cook regularly for young nieces and nephews, and Hines knows there’s no safe level of lead exposure.

They called 14 plumbers looking for a quote. Some refused to take them on or seemed to be trying to dissuade them from doing the work altogether, saying the job would be too expensive. One preliminary quote totaled $25,000. They were told permits alone could cost between $5,000 and $7,000.

“These fees seem so exorbitant when it’s like, this was a city screw-up,” Hines said, referring to Chicago’s history of installing lead lines long after the health consequences came to light. “I just cannot believe that the permitting fees are so high to help fix a problem that the city created.”

.apple-news-ignore-an .maps-panel { --color-primary: #3c3830; --color-secondary: #777; --color-orange: #F79945; --color-turquoise: #12A07F; --color-fuchsia: #AC00E8; --color-bluey: #3977F3; --color-earth: #3c3830; --typography-primary: "PolySans", Arial, sans-serif; --typography-secondary: "Basis Grotesque", Arial, sans-serif; --spacing-base: 10px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--typography-secondary); margin: 1.5rem auto; padding: 0; position: relative; width: 100%; max-width: 1200px; } .maps-panel * { box-sizing: border-box; } .maps-panel__title { font-family: var(--typography-primary); font-size: 24px; color: var(--color-primary); margin: var(--spacing-base) 0; margin-left: 0; } .maps-panel__subtitle { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 18px; margin: 0 0 calc(var(--spacing-base) * 2); margin-left: 0; } .maps-panel__grid { display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr); gap: 40px 20px; margin-bottom: 30px; } .maps-panel__map-container { width: 100%; } .maps-panel__map-title { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); color: var(--color-primary); text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0 0 8px 8px; } .maps-panel__map-image { width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; } .maps-panel__footer { display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: flex-end; margin-top: 8px; } .maps-panel__credits { display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .maps-panel__source { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0; display: inline-block; } .maps-panel__credit { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 3px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; display: inline-block; } .maps-panel__logos { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 12px; margin-left: auto; padding-right: 20px; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; } .maps-panel__logo { height: 20px; width: auto; } @media (max-width: 600px) { .maps-panel__grid { grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr); gap: 30px 16px; } .maps-panel__title { font-size: 20px; } .maps-panel__subtitle { font-size: 16px; } .maps-panel__map-title { font-size: 12px; } } Where have Chicago’s lead pipes been replaced — and why? Chicago has replaced more than 15,000 lead service lines since 2021. Program type determines location: emergency repairs are citywide, subsidized equity initiatives are concentrated in the South and West sides, and homeowner-initiated repairs cluster on the North Side. Breaks and leaks Equity Homeowner-initiated Daycare Sewer and water main Block-level Source: City of Chicago DWM Cam Rodriguez / WBEZ / Amy Qin / Clayton Aldern / Grist

Replacing a single line can require permits from the water and transportation departments as well as inspection-related charges, according to the city’s Department of Buildings. The fees vary based on the type of street and size of pipe.

The water department said it waives all its permit fees when the city pays for replacements. But it’s not so simple when property owners want to shoulder the cost. Some qualify for a city program waiving up to $5,000 in fees; others don’t. Water department officials could not provide an average cost for permits, saying it varies by project site. 

After more than six months of research, including contacting their alderman, district commissioner, and multiple city departments to track down answers about costs, Hines and his wife finally settled on a plumber who knew how to navigate the city’s permit waivers. He gave them a quote of $22,000 for the job, which he said will include permits. They hope their replacement will take place in July.

Several miles south, Ryan Wilson and his wife, Alaina Harkness, said they didn’t qualify for the fee waiver. They paid nearly $25,000 to replace the lead line at their Hyde Park home last year, but because they also upsized their service line while replacing it, they weren’t eligible for the waiver.

Ryan Wilson and Alaina Harkness stand next to their new water meter that was placed during the replacement of the lead pipes in their Hyde Park home. Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times

Wilson has worked in urban planning for decades, and even so, said he found navigating the city’s permitting requirements extremely confusing. They never were able to figure out how much of their final bill was allotted to permits. If Chicago wants to improve citywide replacement efforts, Wilson said, improving the permitting process should be high on the list.

“There’s not a single person to talk to about this,” he said.

Inefficient contracts and funding woes 

Water department officials pointed to two key reasons for the high costs. First, they said that the city lacked a firm grasp of costs when launching its replacement program in 2021 and that its first round of contracts was inefficient. The early contracts also bundled jobs poorly, tasking contractors with work outside their specialization, like having plumbers work on restoration or outreach.

“Early on, the issue was … a lot of unknowns in our contracts,” the water department’s deputy commissioner, Michael Grillo, said at a webinar last fall. “We are trying to be smarter with our contracts that go out, be more specific, eliminate those unknowns.”

Plumbing companies overbid to cover worst-case scenarios in those early contracts, he said. The water department’s Vidis confirmed via email that the city has implemented four new contracts this year, focused on improving equitable access for small businesses to replace lead service lines, but said the goal of those contracts was not to reduce per-line prices. 

Grillo also blamed labor costs for part of the city’s high price tag. But that explanation doesn’t appear to pan out. 

The base prevailing wage for a union plumber in the Chicago area is $99.52 per hour. By contrast, it’s about $97 in Minneapolis and roughly $121 in New York City, both of which replace their lead pipes for less than half of Chicago’s costs.  

“I have a hard time believing that the prevailing wage would be the cost factor,” said Betony Jones, a senior researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and former director of energy jobs under the Biden administration.

The city says a lack of robust, flexible funding is compounding the problem. Chicago has to cobble together funding from a patchwork of local and federal sources in the form of grants and low-interest loans, which bring red tape and restrictions.

The Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act delivered a historic $15 billion for lead pipe removal, with Illinois getting about $1.2 billion, according to Duckworth’s office. This month, Duckworth’s office announced a separate $22 million federal grant earmarked for Chicago’s majority-Black Austin neighborhood — where 92 percent of service lines require replacement, according to last year’s lead service line inventory. At Chicago’s price point, the state estimates that $22 million will only replace about 650 lines out of the nearly 17,000 reported in city data for Austin last year. 

“Chicago needs to explain where the money is going and justify the cost,” wrote Elin Betanzo, a national drinking water expert who helped uncover the Flint water crisis, in an email.

Read Next He’s the only comprehensive lead tester in this contaminated neighborhood. He graduates next month. Anna Mattson

Betanzo, who has done extensive research on cost-saving tactics, said she has not seen a realistic cost breakdown that demonstrates why Chicago is paying as much as it is.

“They need to figure out how to complete the most cost-efficient lead service line replacements in the country, not the most expensive,” she added.

With funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act set to run out this year, public health experts have been calling for more local, federal, and state dollars to fund replacements, especially in overburdened cities like Chicago.

“It’s a critical part of the infrastructure,” Betanzo said. “It’s that final piece of public health protection.”

Amy Qin and Cam Rodriguez contributed data analysis to this story.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Why is it so unusually expensive to replace lead pipes in Chicago? on Jun 30, 2026.

In his latest Freedom 250 triumph, Pres. Fragile Snowflake launched a Great American State Fair in D.C, which is not a state, boasting tens of attendees, no shade or seats, melted ice cream, busted Ferris wheel, $25 pretzels, teenage performers, sorry-ass pavilions often sporting a mere chair, a masturbating MAGA podcaster, and a Spinal-Tap-like mini-Arc-de-Pedo that began disintegrating its first day. No wonder headliner Trump - right again! - giddily proclaimed, "This is the beginning of the golden age of America."

Fresh from miraculously transforming the iconic "reflecting lakes" into a fetid debacle, Trump launched "the most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever had," though maybe not in the way he envisioned. Many observers noted "his own Potemkin Village," billed as "a world-class exposition," sadly "sputtered out of the gate," bathed in the same "stench of kitsch and failure" as everything he touches. The “sparsely attended and shockingly boring” result was variously likened to "comedy gold," "horror movie vibes," "theater of the absurd," and a Butlins - low-rent British package resorts - "for fascists with heatstroke."

It did not have to be this way. A viral Reddit post by a former worker at the Smithsonian recalled the "millions in private philanthropy" raised years ago for a landmark 250th anniversary of what's been called "the greatest sentence ever written" declaring "all men (sic) are created equal." Planned was a month-long folk festival, "The Festival of Festivals," featuring a blend of the likes of Burning Man, Farm Aid, Grand Ole Oprey and local festivals highlighting the best of American arts, redolent of the famed Christmas Truce of World War One when "people put down their weapons and got together" in a hopeful, unifying cause.

That was before Trump "stole America's 250th birthday and threw it for himself," refusing to issue permits for the Smithsonian's version and swiftly turning what could have been a joyful historic civic celebration into a bleak, gaudy reality-TV pageant, an alleged state fair (which clearly neither he nor his minions have ever seen) without the requisite rides, games, farm animals, cotton candy, fried dough, fresh lemonade or "fun," which could be why reports surfaced of a muggy and miserable scene where bored kids were loudly complaining and at least one took to rolling in the steamy grass screaming, "I. WANT. TO. GO. HOME!!!”

Because grifters gonna grift, it also became an egregious “$100-million laundering operation" with a small Ferris wheel. Added to $80 million in our money he stole from the bipartisan, real 250 commission, he lured corporate sponsors seeking favors or contracts - Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Oracle, ExxonMobil, United Airlines - with obscene "deals": $500,000 for “V.I.P access and seating" at all events, $1 million for a “private thank you reception” and “historic photo opportunity,” $2.5 million to be handed the mike for "a speaking role" at a July 4 event," up to $10 million for God knows what further abuse of power.

Thus did his latest round of corrupt bombastic patriotism, trailing "a sense of dread" and blaring Creed's Higher, kick off Wednesday night to a military flyover, a National Anthem badly sung by Kash Patel's girlfriend, and a speech behind bulletproof glass to a mostly empty National Mall. "I am thrilled to declare that America is back,” he said, going on to reassure himself on the greatest terror of his life. "We were a joke two years ago, but nobody's laughing at us anymore" - this, from a purported US president forced to fill in for Milli Vanilli. Then he did his cringey robot "dance" while a Marine band played YMCA. Oof.

Despite a relatively, mercifully brief speech, a viral video showed people streaming out as he droned on. Later he posted the rally was "packed to the brim with 45,000 happy people. Everybody stayed right until the end of my speech - they loved hearing about a truly successful America." Uh huh. "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears": Most reports put the crowd at about 1,000. Sleepy Joe last week: "Whoa. What a loser." Online, people cracked about "almost dozens of people," said they'd seen bigger crowds at school fairs, family reunions, Walmart, and suggested, "They were all at Mamdani's pool party."

Grimly smiling Fox News hosts, though, toughed it out. Before a vast vista of grass dotted with maybe 14 people, they posted AI slopaganda and happily exclaimed "How great is this?" "We've got thousands celebrating!" "People are still coming!" and, "The feeling of patriotism is all in the air!" After C-listers all bailed and Vanilla Ice cancelled due to non-existent "inclement weather," performers came down to a 14-year-old singer from Arkansas and a local artist who painted an American flag live on stage; steadfast Fox chirped "so many cool people" watched him. They didn't mention, per one sage, that more people have been sexually assaulted by Epstein et al than attended this week's Fair.

Meanwhile, generator issues caused the Ferris wheel to periodically shut down and the ice cream to melt; inexplicably, a butter sculpture of Trump and mascot cow named Melania didn't. Food vendors were few and airport-pricey: $5 water bottles, $23 turkey legs, $25 stuffed pretzels, a $27 dry burger with "limp, slimy lettuce on top.” Replicas of Trump passports, bewilderingly reading, "Welcome but be good," were gifted; invited whiteboard messages included, "A felon and predator resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave!!”; police arrested a MAGA podcaster dressed as Uncle Sam for masturbating to a performance by women acrobats.

Lining the Mall were slapdash, flimsy state pavilions looking like empty doctors' waiting rooms or "like something Wile E. Coyote would run into while chasing the Road Runner." Over 20% of states declined to partake in the regime's ideological project to rewrite American history into a white, male Christian saga; some sent a minimal token - state name or symbol, (welcome) chair or two. Maine is a bare room whose walls list lobster facts; Oregon, "the Beaver State," has a chair, Vermont was empty until a woman drove down with maple syrup pamphlets; Alabama has a tub of peanuts; Kansas, cut-outs of Wizard of Oz characters.

North Carolina flew a Confederate flag, later taken down. In "a small act of cultural sabotage," Florida honors anti-Trump Tom Petty and Jimmy Buffett among its famous residents. A mostly empty Faith and Family pavilion adorned with an Israeli flag hosted an evangelical pastor and drew two customers to "plunder hell and populate heaven”; other evangelicals reportedly wander the empty grounds, offering exorcisms. An empty War Department (sic) booth exhibits a cardboard cutout of George Washington, a montage of Hegseth's noble "war-fighters," and camo vests for kids to try on, get hyped and emulate them.

Overseeing it all stands a stubby, shabby plywood and vinyl mock-up of Trump’s $100 million “Arc de Trump,” aka "Arc de Mentia," "Epstein Memorial Arch," "L' Arc de Dômbfuqué," his "Triumph of the Will" vision of "democracy if it had a midlife crisis and bought a white tracksuit." Many liken it to McDonald's arches, Spinal Tap's mini-Stonehenge, or Derek Zoolander's Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too," but the arch quickly began buckling and melting in D.C.'s humidity. Some fair-goers in search of rare shade have still sought it out. Others argue it'd get more traffic as a urinal.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

On Monday, the Fair was devoted to RFK's so-called MAHA, Make America Healthy Again program, or what has now morphed into Make America Hurl Again after organizers inexplicably decided the best way to promote better eating habits was to hold a contest in muggy-90-something-degree temps where people stuff their faces with as many pancakes as possible while gagging and trying not to throw up. Eat till you puke: Fun for the whole family! Up next, some speculate: "They will swim in some sewage and stare into an eclipse." Or mebbe snort heroin off a toilet seat? Stay classy, fascists. Trump was right: Too much winning.

America's 250th marks the signing by 56 brave men of "a flawed but aspirational document" declaring a nation's independence and asserting, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Facts owe. Most of the Founding Fathers - slaveholders, misogynists, oppressors of Native Americans - "did not live up to those words," notes one historian. "The country they created was incomplete, and the work of completing it has been the work of every generation since."

Since its inception, America has been "wrestling with the contradictions of its original sin," says Eddie Glaude, a professor of African- American studies. "This divided soul in which America imagines itself as a beacon of freedom and as a white republic (is) a kind of madness at the heart of the country. That madness evidences itself in cycles, and we happen to be in one right now." Still, every bailed musical act, court victory, voice raised in truth tells Trump, "We see you," writes Dean Blundell. "The country is not him. It has never been him. The country is the people who showed up across 250 years and did the work." And for now, it remains.

The renewables tricks Channel Comment brendan 30th June 2026 Teaser Media

EWG evaluation of food chemicals: Propyl gallate rcoleman June 29, 2026 Dayna de Montagnac, MPH Sydney Evans, MPH Tasha Stoiber, Ph.D. Jump to: What is propyl gallate and why is it added to food? Food propyl gallate is found in What is the regulatory status of propyl gallate? Is food containing propyl gallate always classified as ultra-processed? Is propyl gallate allowed in organic foods? What are the potential health harms associated with propyl gallate? Uncertainties and the need for more research Additional details Other product use categories References June 30, 2026 EWG’s recommendation

Propyl gallate is an ingredient of concern, and EWG recommends limiting consumption of food containing this ingredient. 

Propyl gallate’s toxicity is linked to its breakdown in the body, which produces reactive oxygen species, or ROS. It also causes oxidative stress, a process connected to numerous chronic diseases. When broken down into pyrogallol, a highly reactive oxidizing agent, it can lead to pro-oxidant systemic toxicity, glutathione depletion, and potentially cause damage to the liver (hepatotoxicity) and kidneys (nephrotoxicity). 

Studies in animals and cells have also shown propyl gallate is associated with reproductive health harms, including inducing male infertility and testicular toxicity in mice, anti-estrogenic effects affecting female reproductive health, and impaired early embryonic development.

Science analysis

What is propyl gallate and why is it added to food?

Propyl gallate is a preservative that prevents oxidation, extending the shelf life of fats and oils in processed foods.

Food propyl gallate is found in

Propyl gallate is typically added to meat products, frozen food and candy.

Propyl gallate is used in 275 of the 172,081 food items added to EWG’s Food Scores between 2023 and 2025.

Top 15 food and drink categories organized by supermarket shelf

Image

Source: EWG’s Food Scores. Label created between 1/1/23 and 10/22/25.

What is the regulatory status of propyl gallate?

The Food and Drug Administration classified propyl gallate as “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, and approved it for use in food in 1948. Propyl gallate is commonly added to food as an antioxidant, but the total antioxidant content cannot exceed 0.02% of the total fat or oil content of the food. 

Like other synthetic antioxidants, propyl gallate is also approved in the U.S. as a food contact substance – materials and articles intended to come into contact with food. 

In the European Union, an acceptable daily intake, or ADI, of 0.5 mg/kg was established for three gallates – propyl, octyl and dodecyl – in 1987 by the Scientific Committee on Food. WHO/JECFA established a higher ADI of 1.4 mg/kg of body weight in 1996 for propyl gallate. 

In 2014, a European Food Safety Authority, or EFSA, panel derived an ADI of 0.5 mg/kg for propyl gallate only. The panel concluded there was no longer a basis for the group ADI.

Is food containing propyl gallate always classified as ultra-processed?

Yes, propyl gallate and other synthetic preservatives are common ingredients in ultra-processed food, or UPF. As an industrially synthesized ingredient, the NOVA framework classifies it as a UPF ingredient (Monteiro et al., 2019). 

Because it serves as a flavoring agent and adjuvant, the presence of propyl gallate is enough to qualify a food or beverage as ultra-processed, according to a recent California law defining UPF (Real Food, Healthy Kids Act, 2025). 

Is propyl gallate allowed in organic foods?

No. Under Department of Agriculture organic standards, synthetic substances are prohibited in certified organic foods. 

What are the potential health harms associated with propyl gallate?

Like other synthetic antioxidants, the toxicity of propyl gallate is related to its breakdown in the body and production of ROS, which creates oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages cells and causes programmed cell death (apoptosis), a process associated with numerous chronic diseases. 

Propyl gallate rapidly metabolizes into gallic acid in the body. At higher levels, a portion can then be decarboxylated by gut bacteria into pyrogallol, a highly reactive oxidizing agent. The formation of pyrogallol may contribute to pro-oxidant toxicity, resulting in glutathione depletion, which leads to hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity (Park, 2025). 

While gallic acid is less reactive at low dietary exposure levels, it may become pro-oxidative and hepatotoxic at the elevated concentrations typically found in concentrated herbal supplements (Galati et al., 2006). 

The accumulation of these reactive metabolites and generation of ROS have been associated with cellular DNA breaks (Javaheri-Ghezeldizaj et al., 2023).

Evidence of cell damage induced by propyl gallate extends across multiple studies. One found that propyl gallate induces male infertility and testicular toxicity in mice by disrupting calcium homeostasis, causing mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum stress, and suppressing cell viability and steroidogenesis in Leydig and Sertoli cells (Ham et al., 2019). 

Another study found propyl gallate interferes with the production of estrogen (Amadasi et al., 2009), which can affect female reproductive health. In another rodent study, propyl gallate exposure impaired early embryonic development by inducing oxidative stress, DNA damage and autophagy while also disrupting mitochondrial and lysosomal function and altering epigenetic modifications (Yang et al., 2024).

Studies investigating the anti-cancer properties of propyl gallate provide further evidence of its pro-oxidant activity. In lung cancer cell models, propyl gallate increased ROS and depleted glutathione, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis (Park, 2021). 

These mechanisms overlap with the compound’s toxic effects in non-cancer cells, suggesting that oxidative stress may play a central role in both its therapeutic and adverse biological effects. 

A 1982 carcinogenesis bioassay by the National Toxicology Program concluded that propyl gallate was not carcinogenic in rats or mice. However, the study noted evidence of tumorigenesis in low-dose male rats specifically. They exhibited more, mostly benign pancreatic, adrenal and preputial gland tumors that did not occur in the high-dose treatment groups. 

Rare tumors were noted in two of the low-dose female rats (National Toxicology Program, 1982).

In refined exposure assessments conducted by the EFSA in 2014, propyl gallate was estimated to exceed the ADI for the elderly and adults. Higher estimates in adults and the elderly compared to other groups were due to its presence in food supplements (EFSA ANS Panel, 2014). 

The assessment also found exposure to propyl gallate from food contact materials alone likely exceeded the ADI for most children (EFSA ANS Panel, 2014). But because their exposure models were intentionally conservative, the EFSA concluded current real world use of propyl gallate was not a safety concern. 

Uncertainties and the need for more research

The presence of propyl gallate in food contact materials and cosmetics, as well as octyl gallate and dodecyl gallate, should be considered when determining total exposure risk. Concurrent exposure to propyl gallate and related synthetic antioxidants may contribute to overall exposure and should be considered when evaluating potential health risks (Wang et al., 2021). 

To refine future exposure assessments, the EFSA panel noted that additional data are needed on the use of propyl gallate in breakfast cereal, soup, processed nuts and food supplements. 

More research is needed to understand both the cytotoxic and cytoprotective properties of propyl gallate in humans. 

Additional details 

Research shows propyl gallate’s anti-cancer activity appears to involve pro-oxidant and apoptotic pathways that overlap with mechanisms implicated in its toxicity. In cancer cell models, propyl gallate induces severe oxidative stress, cell cycle arrest and programmed cell death (Wei et al., 2019; Park, 2020).

Other product use categories

Propyl gallate is also added to cosmetic products as a preservative. It  scores 4 in EWG’s Skin Deep® database and is not allowed in EWG Verified® products.

References

Global health and regulatory agencies

• EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS). (2014). Scientific opinion on the re‐evaluation of propyl gallate (E 310) as a food additive. EFSA Journal, 12(4), Article 3642. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2014.3642

Comprehensive reviews and frameworks

• Monteiro, C.A., Cannon, G., Levy, R.B., Moubarac, J., Louzada, M.L., Rauber, F., Khandpur, N., Cediel, G., Neri, D., Martinez-Steele, E., Baraldi, L.G., & Jaime, P.C. (2019). Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutrition, 22(5), 936–941. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980018003762.
• National Toxicology Program. (1982). Carcinogenesis bioassay of propyl gallate (CAS No. 121-79-9) in F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice (Feed study) (Technical Report Series No. 240; NIH Publication No. 83-1796). Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/sites/default/files/ntp/htdocs/lt_rpts/tr240.pdf
• Park, W.H. (2021). Enhanced cell death effects of MAP kinase inhibitors in propyl gallate–treated lung cancer cells are related to increased ROS levels and GSH depletion. Toxicology in Vitro, 75, Article 105176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tiv.2021.105176 
• Wang, W., Xiong, P., Zhang, H., Zhu, Q., Liao, C., & Jiang, G. (2021). Analysis, occurrence, toxicity and environmental health risks of synthetic phenolic antioxidants: A review. Environmental Research, 201, 111531. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111531 
• Monteiro, C.A., Cannon, G., Levy, R.B., Moubarac, J., Louzada, M.L., Rauber, F., Khandpur, N., Cediel, G., Neri, D., Martinez-Steele, E., Baraldi, L.G., & Jaime, P.C. (2019). Ultra-processed foods: what they are and how to identify them. Public Health Nutrition, 22(5), 936–941. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980018003762.

Legislation

• Real Food, Healthy Kids Act, A.B. 1264, Chapter 467, Cal. Stat. (2025).https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1264 
• 21 CFR 184.1660 – Propyl gallate. (n.d.). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-184/subpart-B/section-184.1660

Specific health impact studies

• Park, W.H. (2025). A comprehensive review of pyrogallol: from fundamental chemistry to advanced applications and toxicological insights. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 123(3), 527–543. https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.70115 
• Galati, G., Lin, A., Sultan, A.M., & O'Brien, P.J. (2006). Cellular and in vivo hepatotoxicity caused by green tea phenolic acids and catechins. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 40(4), 570–580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2005.09.014 
• Javaheri-Ghezeldizaj, F., Mirza Alizadeh, A., Dehghan, P., & Ezzati Nazhad Dolatabadi, J. (2023). Pharmacokinetic and toxicological overview of propyl gallate food additive. Food Chemistry, 423, Article 135219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.135219
• Ham, J., Lim, W., Park, S., Bae, H., You, S., & Song, G. (2019). Synthetic phenolic antioxidant propyl gallate induces male infertility through disruption of calcium homeostasis and mitochondrial function. Environmental Pollution, 248, 845–856. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.02.087 
• Amadasi, A., Mozzarelli, A., Meda, C., Adriana, M., & Cozzini, P. (2009). Identification of xenoestrogens in food additives by an integrated in silico and in vitro approach. Chemical Research in Toxicology, 22(1), 52–63. https://doi.org/10.1021/tx800048m 
• Yang, S., Yang, F., Zou, Y., Wang, Y., Ding, Z., Zhang, L., Zhou, X., Liu, M., Duan, Z., & Huo, L. (2024). Propyl gallate exposure affects the mouse 2-cell stage embryonic development through inducing oxidative stress and autophagy. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 185, 114488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2024.114488
• Wei, P., Huang, C., & Chang, Y. (2019). Propyl gallate inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma cell growth through the induction of ROS and the activation of autophagy. PLoS ONE, 14(1), e0210513. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210513 
• Park, W. (2020). Propyl gallate reduces the growth of lung cancer cells through caspase‑dependent apoptosis and G1 phase arrest of the cell cycle. Oncology Reports, 44(6), 2783–2791. https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2020.7815 

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington

Sarina Virmani lives in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is home to over 200 data centers and colloquially known as Data Center Alley. As a high school student, Virmani published a paper on the environmental impact of data centers in the American Journal of Student Research. She also organizes for more transparency and regulation in the industry.

“A lot of people think that artificial intelligence is something that’s invisible, but it’s not. It lives in these massive buildings,” she said. 

Data centers aren’t new in Loudoun County, but the explosive growth of AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini is driving demand for more. The environmental impact of all of those data centers can be tricky to parse, but there are a few things we know for certain: Data centers are extending the life of aging oil, gas, and coal infrastructure, they are spurring the building of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and they can pose risks to water resources. 

What is AI, and why does it need so much electricity?

To some extent, AI technology is as old as the computer. The term artificial intelligence was popularized in the 1950s, and as computer technology has become increasingly affordable and powerful, machine learning and algorithms have become part of our economy and everyday lives. The Instagram algorithm, for example, just turned 10 years old.

The current iteration of AI began in November 2022, when OpenAI publicly launched ChatGPT. ChatGPT’s secret weapon was access to a massive amount of data — some of which was used without copyright permission — and the computer power and architecture to process it and train models. This process is enormously energy-intensive. In a Q&A published by the University of Washington, AI scholar Sajjad Moazen said that training one single large language model like ChatGPT-3 can use up to 10 gigawatt-hours of power. 

“This is on average roughly equivalent to the yearly electricity consumption of over 1,000 U.S. households,” he said. 

A worker prepares a plot of land for an AI data center in the shadow of a retired power plant being refurbished to provide electricity for the facility. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

How much climate-changing pollution does generative AI create? 

The training and deployment of large AI tools requires so much power that it is leading to a boom in new fossil fuel infrastructure and extending the life of aging power plants. 

“I like to call them zombie power plants,” said Quentin Good, coauthor of a report on data centers by the Frontier Group. “They should be dead, but we keep reviving them, and they’re walking around like zombies polluting our communities.”

The report found that the retirements of at least 15 fossil fuel plants have been postponed to meet increased energy demand. Those 15 plants alone emit more climate-changing pollution than the entire state of Massachusetts. Utilities, grid operators, and the federal government have all cited data center energy demand as a reason to keep aging fossil fuel infrastructure online. In some cases, power plant retirements have been pushed back by more than a decade. 

In the case of one coal plant in southern Virginia, which was set to phase out in 2025, operations have been extended indefinitely. In 2023, the plant emitted more pollution than over 65,000 typical gasoline-powered vehicles produce in a year.

“[The U.S. had] been planning to get pretty much all of our coal plants offline by 2040,” Good said. “Those plans are basically out the window now.”

On top of that is all of the new fossil fuel infrastructure being built to meet AI demand. Wired writer Molly Taft reported in April 2026 that new gas plants linked to just 11 U.S. data center campuses could generate more climate-changing pollution than the entire country of Morocco emitted in 2024. 

And some data centers use highly polluting diesel generators as backup when there’s too much demand on the electric grid. Good said that although restrictions limit how much a company can run diesel generators, many states are considering exceptions for data centers. 

How much water does AI use, really?

Details around data center water use are murky, and the environmental impact is at least partially dependent on where data centers are located. Good has found that although data centers do need large volumes of water to cool down servers, data center water use is not a crisis in Virginia — though that could change in times of drought. 

Data centers in water-stressed areas, like arid parts of Colorado, pose larger water-use concerns. Good noted that the highest data center water demand comes during the hottest, driest months, which is when river flows tend to be lowest and other water needs also peak.

Other water-related issues arise when water is discharged after it has been used in a data center. Good said the environmental impacts of this process and the effects on local waterways and wildlife are an underresearched area that he hopes to study more. 

“When they discharge the water that they used to cool the servers, that water has elevated levels of sodium and other nasty stuff in it,” Good said. “And it’s really hot, so that could impact fish and other animals in streams and rivers.”

What can you do to reduce AI’s climate-changing pollution?

Like most climate solutions, the fight against polluting AI systems happens at all levels, including through regulation, community organizing, and limiting individual use of energy-intensive tools. 

The Trump administration has tended to favor accelerating permits for data centers, and the president signed an executive order in late 2025 attempting to limit states’ ability to regulate their construction and energy use. Yet NPR has reported that there is bipartisan support for AI industry regulations in Congress and in state governments.

People attend a planning meeting to comment on a proposed data center in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

At a local scale, residents can attend public meetings and hearings about data centers and ask questions. Well-organized neighbors across the U.S. have shut down projects, passed local moratoriums, and limited electricity rate hikes. 

On the individual level, people can think twice before using a generative AI tool. By reducing unnecessary use of AI tools and encouraging others to do the same, people can reduce demand for these tools and the enormous amounts of energy they require.

How do we build mass powerful movements? Why does the left often implode and self-destruct as it makes gains to challenging the ruling class? How to raise to the occasion…

Dirty Dozen™ food chemicals: Propyl gallate Iris Myers June 29, 2026 EWG’s recommendation

Avoid or limit foods containing propyl gallate.

Propyl gallate is a preservative that has been linked to oxidative stress, which is when reactive molecules build up and damage cells. Laboratory studies have connected propyl gallate and its breakdown products to liver and kidney damage, as well as potential reproductive harm. 

What is propyl gallate?

Propyl gallate is a preservative that prevents oxidation, extending the shelf life of fats and oils in packaged foods. It’s also used as a preservative in cosmetic products.

Which foods contain propyl gallate?

Propyl gallate is most commonly found in processed meat like hot dogs and sausages. It’s also a common ingredient in candy and a range of frozen products, including pizza and other frozen meals.

Look for propyl gallate in product ingredient lists, usually below or next to the Nutrition Facts panel, on the back of the package. Propyl gallate may also be added to food packaging, which companies are not required to disclose.

How is propyl gallate regulated?

The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for overseeing food additives and other ingredients. Propyl gallate was approved for use in food in 1948 and is classified as generally recognized as safe in limited amounts.

The European Union’s European Food Safety Authority reevaluated propyl gallate in 2014 and derived an acceptable daily intake level of 0.5 mg/kg for this single additive. This assessment found that adults and the elderly may have higher exposure due in part to propyl gallate’s presence in food supplements. 

Exposure from food packaging alone was also estimated to exceed the most children’s allowable intake level. But the European authority concluded that because its exposure models were intentionally conservative, the current real world use of propyl gallate was not a safety concern.

Propyl gallate is prohibited in certified organic foods under Department of Agriculture organic standards, which bar synthetic substances.

What does the science say about propyl gallate?

When propyl gallate breaks down in the body at higher levels, it can produce reactive byproducts that cause oxidative stress, damaging cells and DNA. Research shows that one key breakdown product, pyrogallol, is a highly reactive compound that can deplete the body’s natural antioxidant defenses and damage the liver and kidneys.

Propyl gallate has also been linked to reproductive harm in animal and cell studies. One study found it induces male infertility and testicular toxicity in mice at high exposure levels. Another found it to be anti-estrogenic, which can affect female reproductive health. 

A third study showed that higher levels of propyl gallate exposure impaired early embryonic development in mice by triggering oxidative stress and DNA damage. 

A 1982 study by the National Toxicology Program found propyl gallate was not carcinogenic in rats or mice but noted an increased incidence of mostly benign tumors in low-dose male rats. No major regulatory agencies classify propyl gallate as causing cancer. 

Find out more

Learn more about recommendations relating to propyl gallate – and the full EWG Dirty Dozen list of food chemicals – on EWG’s research page.

EWG’s Food Scores provides ratings for more than 150,000 foods and drinks based on nutrition, ingredients and processing concerns, and flags unhealthy ultra-processed foods to help you identify alternatives.

EWG’s Skin Deep® cosmetic database helps to identify harmful chemicals in personal care and beauty products. EWG Verified® products meet the strictest criteria for transparency and health.

And the Healthy Living™ app lets you take these tools with you on the go.

Areas of Focus Food Ultra-Processed Foods Food Chemicals Authors Sarah Reinhardt, MPH, RDN June 30, 2026

How Indigenous Land and Water Defenders Strategized to Defend the Guatemalan People

This is part two of a two-part series on the Peaceful Resistance La Puya and Kappes v. Guatemala by Jennifer Moore at The Institute for Policy Studies and Ellen Moore at Earthworks. Read the first part here.

Nevada-based Kappes, Cassiday & Associates lost their international arbitration suit against Guatemala in December, 2025. The company was seeking damages because Guatemala’s courts had halted extraction at their gold mine there.

The Guatemalan government built its legal strategy in the case based on the legitimacy of the struggle of Peaceful Resistance La Puya, a social movement of Indigenous land and water defenders. Peaceful Resistance La Puya has maintained a 24-hour camp by the side of a road at the entrance to the mine for fourteen years. 

The government’s case also relied on the wealth of information La Puya had gathered. La Puya provided information on the company’s failures to uphold Guatemalan environmental regulations, its shoddy environmental studies, incomplete permits, and the overwhelming social opposition to the project from the start. 

Don Alvaro Sandoval on the road to the mine Fourteen Years of Resistance and Repression

Since the resistance began in March 2012, La Puya has stood up to many challenges, including violent police repression by the Guatemalan government. La Puya has faced disinformation campaigns, divide and conquer tactics, intimidation and threats from a private security outfit staffed with ex-military personnel, as well as the trauma of legal persecution and intense police repression in order to facilitate the mine’s operation from 2014-2016. 

Documenting Impact and Struggle

Like many frontline struggles opposing mining projects, the resistance built allies to document the human rights violations and to demonstrate the illegalities of the gold mine, including the fact that the project never had a valid municipal construction permit. 

As well, La Puya worked with independent experts to evaluate the mining company’s environmental impact assessment and found serious deficiencies and gaps, although authorities granted KCA a license to operate anyway.

A History of State and Company Repression

In KCA’s arbitration suit, the company argued that it had faced discrimination as a result of the mine suspension and that the government failed to provide it with adequate protection and security from the peaceful resistance to continue expanding the project.

For people from La Puya, KCA’s claim was surreal and infuriating. 

Alvaro Sandoval, from the nearby village of La Choleña, was indignant. He remembers that there were two permanent police check points while the mine was operating. One was on the road in front of the resistance camp and the other at the entrance to the mine.

It made me angry because it isn’t true that the state didn’t provide security to the company so that it could mine. Our bodies bore witness to the sacrifices, fears, anguish. And after all that the state did to us, in collusion with the company… It made me really mad and really upset.
Candelaria Carrera from the community of Carrizal in San Pedro Ayampuc

Weighing In on KCA’s Arbitration Case

Presenting an amicus curiae submission to the arbitration panel is the only formal channel of participation for third parties in ISDS cases. Amicus curiae (friend of the court) submissions are legal arguments presented by third parties who can share relevant information on cases.

However, the arbitration panel has no obligation to consider these requests. La Puya tried to make a submission and was refused. 

Looking back, La Puya member Ana Sandoval thinks this was fortuitous: “In the end, we came out ahead… The amicus brief would have been just a single document presenting our arguments and that would have been it. But the relationship that developed with the government instead is important.”

The Very Difficult Decision to Collaborate with Their Oppressor 

Around the time that La Puya was presenting its request to submit an amicus, the state’s lawyers approached the resistance to ask that they provide information and witnesses to support the state’s defense. The arrogance of the initial approach and the state’s role in repressing La Puya in order to open KCA’s mine provoked hard feelings and challenging discussions within the resistance. 

“It is really difficult,” Candelaria recalls, “because after someone has been messing with your life for so long, and we’ve been here resisting and defending life, defending water, and then they finally notice that we’ve been fighting and then they come and ask that of us, after they’ve knocked us around, criminalized so many of us, beat us… It made us angry.” 

But despite the conflicting feelings that the discussion provoked, La Puya decided to participate, contributing documentation and three witnesses who would testify to the arbitration panel. 

Given the high stakes of the multi-million dollar arbitration, for Alvaro Sandoval, the decision went beyond the local interests of La Puya.

“We’re doing this to defend the people of Guatemala, and if we have to do our part, we have to do whatever we can.”
Alvaro Sandoval, Peaceful Resistance La Puya

The Decision Pays Off

While ISDS proceedings tend to be plagued with misinformation and omissions, the reliance on La Puya´s records helped keep the facts straight. At the same time, La Puya and their national and international allies also brought public attention to the injustice of KCA’s arbitration and its gold mine that should never have been approved. 

Finally, after seven years of proceedings, the three-person arbitration panel ruled against KCA on almost all grounds in December 2025. It ordered the company to pay a portion of the government’s arbitration costs. However, the government would still have to pay over $4 million dollars in legal and arbitral costs. 

KCA’s Loss: A Relief for La Puya and a Wake Up Call for Guatemala  

The ruling was received by the Peaceful Resistance La Puya as an early Christmas gift. The outcome of this specific ISDS claim means the Guatemalan government will pay out less in public funds for a private mining project. But it also offers an important opportunity to reflect critically on how the investor protection system poses a wider threat to the defense of water, territory and Indigenous rights in Guatemala. 

Candelaria Carrera said it was hard to contain her emotion when they heard the decision “in the interest of the Guatemalan people; to ensure that public services, which are already inadequate, are not even less capable of reaching the population.”

They also felt joy at the role La Puya had played, “by providing information and agreeing to give interviews… La Puya contributed to this arbitration ruling in favor of Guatemala.” 

The post “We Have to Do Whatever We Can” appeared first on Earthworks.

Indigenous Land and Water Defenders Celebrate Arbitration Result

This is part one of a two-part series on the Peaceful Resistance La Puya and Kappes v. Guatemala. Read the second part here.

For fourteen years, the social movement Peaceful Resistance La Puya has maintained a 24-hour camp on the side of a dusty road just north of Guatemala City. The camp sits at the entrance to an open pit gold mine owned by Nevada-based Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA). 

A lot can happen in that time. Kids who grew up at the encampment left home and went to college. Elders who spent their days supporting La Puya passed away, their commitment memorialized in photos displayed on a banner. 

This winter, what started as a handful of brave women risking their lives to physically block the entrance to the project in March 2012 contributed to a critical step in defense of land and water. 

Peaceful Resistance La Puya celebrated the 14th anniversary of its resistance camp in 2026. A Victory over Corporate Power

In 2016, KCA brought an international arbitration case against Guatemala for the Guatemalan courts’ decision to suspend operations at its mine. The case relied on privileges for transnational investors in the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement. 

KCA sued Guatemala for nearly half a billion-dollars after La Puya’s legal actions achieved the suspension of the mine. A permanent decision from the government about the future of the mine depends on results of an as of yet ongoing court-ordered consultation with affected Maya Kaqchikel and Xinka peoples. 

In December 2025, an arbitration panel at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes concluded that the country did not have to pay damages to KCA for the decision to close its mine. It will still need to cover over $4 million in legal and arbitration costs.

Peaceful Resistance La Puya contributed significantly to Guatemala’s defense during the case. Leaders pointed out that countries often face unfavorable odds in an arbitration system skewed in investors’ favor.

We feel satisfied and vindicated in our peaceful struggle. KCA lost its wager to make millions of dollars through this international arbitration process, which it initiated knowing that it would never win the consent of the communities that have always said no to its unviable project. This project is so bad that the company couldn’t even defend it in an arbitration system designed to protect the investments of transnational companies. 

—Statement by Peaceful Resistance La Puya

An Unjust System

Investor State Dispute Settlement is a system envisioned by and for extractive corporations seeking to maintain control over the natural commons, especially in the Global South. As a one-way system in which only investors can sue governments through private arbitration, it only values corporate rights and deepens the already huge power imbalance between mining-affected communities and project-backers. 

Investors can leap-frog over local and national-level decision-making to bring their cases to arbitration tribunals presided over by corporate lawyers. They can do this without having to exhaust every legal avenue in national courts. This system frequently excludes affected people from participation and has no obligation to consider their rights or perspectives at all. 

Oil, gas, and mining companies are the most litigious in the ISDS system. Issues of Indigenous rights, community opposition and environmental protection often underlie their claims. These cases are used to coerce countries into ignoring these important priorities or to otherwise compensate firms for millions or even billions of dollars.

KCA’s suit was the first that Guatemala has faced from a mining company. 

International Arbitration Cases Undermine Self-Determination

Over 2,500 free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties include provisions that allow transnational investors to unilaterally sue governments before a private arbitration panel when decisions are made that they believe affect the value of their investment. 

As a new report outlines, Guatemala exposed itself to ISDS claims when it began signing bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements following the peace accords in 1996. Since then, it has faced 13 arbitration claims, over half of which stem from the energy sector and several of which — like KCA v. Guatemala —relate to underlying community struggles for water, collective well-being, and self-determination.

Another of these, also decided in 2025, did not go well for Guatemalans. Energía y Renovación Holding, a company owned by Guatemalan partners but registered in Panama, was awarded $64.5 million plus interest and costs. This company attempted to develop a hydroelectric project on Indigenous lands in the Yichk’isis (Ixquisis) Microregion of Huehuetenango despite the communities’ opposition expressed in a community-led “good faith” consultation and repression of the movement. Guatemala is attempting to annul this decision.  

Overall, arbitration tribunals have ordered the government to pay more than $160 million to investors, an amount equivalent to more than three times the budget of Guatemala’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in 2025.

While La Puya values the lessons they gained from an effective inside-outside strategy during the course of KCA’s ISDS suit against Guatemala, they recognize that the threat is ongoing. They are calling on Guatemalan authorities to review the commitments that expose the country to further suits. 

The post A Mining Company Loses Its Bet appeared first on Earthworks.

Activists upstage climate institute launch Channel News brendan 29th June 2026 Teaser Media

Perkembangan Teknologi Mengubah Wajah Permainan Digital

Transformasi teknologi telah membawa perubahan besar dalam industri hiburan digital. Jika dahulu permainan berbasis internet hanya mengandalkan tampilan sederhana dengan fitur yang terbatas, kini berbagai platform menghadirkan pengalaman yang jauh lebih interaktif, cepat, dan responsif. Salah satu istilah yang semakin sering muncul dalam pembahasan dunia permainan digital adalah Slot Maxwin, yang dikenal sebagai bagian dari evolusi permainan modern dengan dukungan teknologi terkini.

Istilah Slot Maxwin sendiri merujuk pada permainan digital yang menawarkan peluang hadiah besar melalui sistem permainan yang telah dirancang menggunakan teknologi mutakhir. Popularitasnya tidak hanya dipengaruhi oleh potensi hadiah, tetapi juga oleh kualitas visual, stabilitas sistem, hingga kemudahan akses melalui berbagai perangkat digital.

Seiring meningkatnya penggunaan smartphone, jaringan internet berkecepatan tinggi, dan komputasi berbasis cloud, pengalaman bermain kini menjadi lebih lancar dibandingkan beberapa tahun lalu. Inilah yang membuat permainan digital modern mampu menjangkau lebih banyak pengguna dari berbagai kalangan.

Teknologi Modern di Balik Slot Maxwin Digital

Perkembangan Slot Maxwin tidak terlepas dari berbagai inovasi teknologi yang terus diperbarui oleh pengembang perangkat lunak. Setiap elemen permainan dirancang agar mampu memberikan pengalaman yang nyaman sekaligus menarik bagi pengguna.

1. Grafis Berkualitas Tinggi

Salah satu perubahan paling mencolok adalah peningkatan kualitas grafis. Permainan modern kini menggunakan teknologi visual beresolusi tinggi dengan animasi yang lebih halus. Setiap detail mulai dari karakter, efek kemenangan, hingga latar permainan dibuat sedemikian rupa agar menciptakan pengalaman yang lebih imersif.

Teknologi rendering terbaru memungkinkan tampilan tetap tajam baik dimainkan melalui komputer maupun perangkat seluler.

2. Audio Interaktif

Selain visual, kualitas suara juga mengalami perkembangan signifikan. Efek audio dirancang mengikuti setiap aktivitas pemain sehingga permainan terasa lebih hidup.

Musik latar yang dinamis dipadukan dengan efek suara khusus ketika fitur bonus atau kemenangan muncul mampu meningkatkan suasana bermain secara keseluruhan.

3. Sistem Responsif Multi-Platform

Saat ini sebagian besar permainan Slot Maxwin telah menggunakan desain responsif. Teknologi ini memungkinkan permainan berjalan optimal pada berbagai ukuran layar tanpa mengurangi kualitas tampilan.

Baik menggunakan Android, iPhone, tablet, maupun komputer desktop, pengguna tetap memperoleh pengalaman bermain yang relatif konsisten.

Peran Random Number Generator (RNG)

Salah satu teknologi yang menjadi fondasi permainan digital modern adalah Random Number Generator (RNG). Sistem ini bertugas menghasilkan kombinasi angka secara acak dalam setiap putaran permainan.

Dengan adanya RNG, hasil setiap putaran bersifat independen sehingga tidak dipengaruhi oleh hasil sebelumnya maupun berikutnya. Teknologi ini digunakan untuk menjaga konsistensi mekanisme permainan sesuai desain yang telah ditetapkan oleh pengembang.

Keberadaan RNG juga menjadi salah satu indikator bahwa permainan modern memanfaatkan sistem komputasi yang lebih kompleks dibandingkan permainan digital generasi awal.

Kesimpulan

Slot Maxwin digital mencerminkan bagaimana kemajuan teknologi telah mengubah pengalaman bermain menjadi lebih modern, interaktif, dan mudah diakses. Berbagai inovasi seperti grafis berkualitas tinggi, sistem Random Number Generator (RNG), komputasi awan, kecerdasan buatan, desain responsif, serta penguatan keamanan digital menjadi fondasi utama yang mendukung perkembangan permainan saat ini.

Dengan terus berkembangnya teknologi informasi, permainan digital diperkirakan akan menghadirkan pengalaman yang semakin personal, efisien, dan inovatif. Bagi pengguna, memahami teknologi di balik permainan tidak hanya menambah wawasan, tetapi juga memberikan gambaran mengenai bagaimana industri hiburan digital terus beradaptasi mengikuti kemajuan zaman.

Headline News:

• “Booming Air Tourism Could Fuel European Rent Hikes Of Up To €250 A Year” • With unchecked growth in tourism and air traffic growth, there is a housing crisis in Europe. Some of the most popular destinations, like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece, have seen protests from residents in the summer months due to the strain on affordable housing. [CleanTechnica]

Home in Greece (Dimitris Kiriakakis, Unsplash, cropped)

• “Swiss Glaciers Melting At Alarming Rate” • The snow and ice that fell on Swiss glaciers last winter is expected to be completely melted away by June 29, Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland has reported. Melting from now to October will shrink the size of the glaciers. The drastic loss is due to the heatwaves that swept over Europe this month. [Euronews]
• “French Deaths Soar As Extreme Heat Breaks European Records” • France saw around 1,000 additional deaths last week at the height of its record-smashing heat wave, the country’s public health agency said. The head of the WHO warned that Europe is now the fastest-warming continent and needs to do more to protect its citizens. [ABC News]
• “‘Insane’ Shortage Of Computer Hardware?” • In the face of the huge demand for computer hardware for data centers, we got news that Apple is raising prices on a bunch of products. Apple CEO Tim Cook said raising prices was “unavoidable.” Elon Musk also chimed in, saying the price surge is unlike anything he has seen “in any area in over 40 years.” [CleanTechnica]
• “Three Firefighters Killed And Two Injured Responding Wildfire On Utah-Colorado Border” • Three firefighters were killed on Saturday while responding to the Snyder Fire, a wildfire burning along the Utah-Colorado border, the US Wildland Fire Service announced. Two other firefighters are being treated for burn injuries, the service said. [ABC News]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Perrine Fournier is a trade, mining, and forest campaigner at Fern. 

The threat that mining critical raw materials poses to some of the planet’s most important ecosystems is beyond dispute. To prevent it, some places on Earth must be declared off-limits for mining under any circumstances. Work has already began to identify them.

A global power struggle to secure strategic resources powering the energy transition, AI and weapons systems is driving growing demand for minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel and manganese, which are used to make electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, wind turbines and other clean energy technologies needed to transition away from fossil fuels.

This mining boom is compounding the threats that extraction poses to precious ecosystems – including tropical forests which are vital to address climate change – and the communities who depend on them.

Preventing this environmental destruction and ensuring that mining is carried out within planetary boundaries is urgent. One solution that is gaining traction has long been advocated by Indigenous groups: creating mining no-go zones.

Fern and a group of NGOs in consultations with Indigenous Peoples’ organisations have began to sketch out a methodology to map out where mining poses unacceptable social, environmental and human rights-related risks and should be prohibited.

Off-limits: Fragile ecosystems that store carbon

The methodology is based on six criteria to determine where mining should be off-limits.

This includes areas protected under international conventions; areas with high conservation value from intact forests to key biodiversity hotspots; forests, peatlands and wetlands that are critical for carbon storage; significant ecosystems such as small islands, mangroves and grasslands; critical water bodies and Indigenous Peoples’ territories.

Around half of the of the metals and minerals needed for the energy transition are located on or near Indigenous Peoples’ territories.

A case in point is Brazil, one of the most mineral-rich countries on earth. Recent research shows that the expansion of mining threatens the conservation of about 363,000 km2 of protected land in the Brazilian Amazon, which consist mainly of forests, and is home to 195,000 traditional and Indigenous people.

Deforestation is a major driver of climate change as it releases carbon stored in the trees into the atmosphere, weakening the forests’ role as a carbon sink. Most of the Brazilian Amazon should therefore be off-limits to mining, both to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights and because of its crucial role for the climate and biodiversity.  

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, mining has had a devastating impact on the precious Miombo forest, one of the world’s largest dry forest ecosystems, and local peoples’ food security. This too is an area where mining should not be allowed to take place.

Protected areas must be default no-go zones

In Europe, efforts to secure access to minerals is also threatening fragile ecosystems. Recent reporting revealed that the European Commission disregarded expert advice when selecting “strategic” mining sites eligible for streamlined permitting procedures, with several environmentally and socially controversial projects added to the list after they initially failed to meet expert assessments. 

One project which met the expert assessment but is nevertheless attracting controversy is the Sakatti nickel mining project in Finnish Lapland. 

• Jun 10, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier Brazil jostles for rare earths share as US-China rivalry heats up With the world’s second-largest reserves of rare earths after China, Brazil is catching the eye of US and Chinese companies – spurring the government’s critical minerals policy push Read more
• May 27, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier Recycling could meet half of Europe’s critical mineral needs by 2050 A new report by an EU-funded research project says the bloc could harness its “urban mines” to reduce its dependence on China for energy transition minerals Read more
• Jun 5, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier The scramble to stockpile critical minerals could drive up energy transition costs Researchers warn that uncoordinated stockpiling could push up prices of minerals needed for clean energy technologies and delay their roll out Read more

Part of its nickel deposit lies under a rich peat bog ecosystem, a major carbon store which developed when glacial rivers and a lake melted at the end of the late Ice Age. The site is protected under Finnish law and is as part of the Natura 2000 network intended to protect Europe’s most valuable species and habitats. These legal safeguards are on the verge of being overridden. Such protected areas should always remain off-limits to mining.

Kicking starting a discussion

To prevent mining from undermining human rights and global climate and biodiversity goals, we urgently need to adopt a global and precautionary approach. This should start with a shared definition of which areas on land and sea should be considered off-limits for extraction.

The methodology we propose is intended to kick-start a broader and transparent discussion, based on scientific, legal and social criteria, in which rights-holders and Indigenous Peoples’ organisations have a seat at the table. No mining should go ahead if it doesn’t have the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples’ or local communities.

Many of the restricted areas are bound to lie in forested tropical countries in the Global South, which understandably want to capitalise on their resources to spur industrial development and create jobs. But history has taught us that relying on a single resource for development runs the risk of being trapped in a resource curse. The more diversified an economy is, the more secure it is. 

Reducing mineral demand

Our modelling shows that for minerals such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, there are sufficient resources that could be mined outside of these restrictive areas to wean the global economy away from climate-wrecking fossil fuels and shift to clean energy systems.

However, that requires hard policy choices, such as reducing mineral demand by promoting more efficient vehicles and alternative battery technologies that are less reliant on critical minerals, as well as better public transport, active travel and car sharing opportunities.

In addition, recycling has a major role to play. A major study recently showed that Europe could meet half of its critical mineral needs through recycling by 2050.

Some mining to access the materials the world needs to address climate change is both inevitable and necessary. But agreeing on a framework to restrict mining in the world’s most sensitive areas will protect them from its ravages, and break the destructive patterns of the past.

The post We need no-go mining zones for the energy transition to be just: Here’s how it could work appeared first on Climate Home News.

As extreme heat worsens pollution, a network of 277 monitors will identify pollution hot spots.

Read more on E360 →

Amid the many political casualties of 2025 — mass federal layoffs, shuttered agencies, and clean energy spending cuts — the passing of one of the last decade’s defining political projects went almost entirely unnoticed. On December 31, 2025, the Green New Deal Network, a coalition of climate, labor, and social justice organizations, officially died. 

The coalition wasn’t intended to last forever, but its demise was sped up by the political mood that got President Donald Trump reelected in 2024, when the momentum that the movement had enjoyed under Joe Biden’s administration seemingly evaporated overnight. As Trump launched an all-out assault on environmental regulations and climate policies, the climate movement was left at a loss, unsure how to push for change with the public increasingly focused on other issues, like the cost of living, and a federal government hostile to its cause.

“The conditions under which the Green New Deal Network was founded have fundamentally changed,” the coalition’s site said, explaining its decision to fold. “The mission of climate, jobs, and justice is far from over — but the structure built to win a specific moment is no longer the right vehicle for what comes next.”

Saul Levin, who was the network’s director of campaigns and politics, knew what was next for him personally: fighting AI data centers. The artificial intelligence boom has created a surge in construction of giant facilities that process digital information, and communities across the country are working to stop them from being built, concerned about water usage, soaring energy bills, and Big Tech taking over. Over a year ago, Levin had started a Signal chat to help people opposing data centers get organized. Now his chat has about 350 members across 40 states, and he’s busy with his new podcast, “The Hum,” capturing their stories and highlighting successes.

Many climate activists are following a similar path. Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and social justice fit organically into the growing anti-data center movement, which has attracted a much broader, bipartisan coalition than the Green New Deal ever did. “The climate movement is increasingly realizing that this is a fight that’s both an important fight and a strategic fight,” said Evan Sutton, an anti-AI advocate who’s helping connect people who oppose data centers. 

Read Next America’s data center backlash is bipartisan — can it stay that way? Zoya Teirstein & Kate Yoder

Take the Sunrise Movement, whose members stormed Representative Nancy Pelosi’s office in 2018 to demand a Green New Deal, catapulting the idea into the national conversation. “We’ve definitely seen a surge of interest in data center fights around the country,” said Aru Shiney-Ajay, the group’s executive director. Local Sunrise hubs have been mobilizing to stop data centers in Dallas, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Lansing, Michigan, Shiney-Ajay said. 

There’s a logical reason for the climate movement to get involved: These hyperscale data centers are poised to cause carbon emissions to spike. A new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data centers could account for about one-third of the growth in U.S. electricity demand between 2024 and 2030. This thirst for energy is driving the expansion of infrastructure for natural gas, a fossil fuel. A typical AI data center demands as much electricity as 100,000 households, but some of the largest ones being built may use up to 20 times that, according to the International Energy Agency. The rapid expansion of data centers threatens to “undo a huge amount of the progress that we made in terms of moving toward clean energy,” Shiney-Ajay said. “If we don’t really seriously start to pass policy that mitigates that, then they could be a disaster for our climate.”

Sunrise Movement protesters call for a Green New Deal at Representative Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Michael Brochstein / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

Some established environmental organizations have gotten on board with suspending hyperscale data center construction. A letter sent to Congress this month calling for a nationwide moratorium was signed by more than 500 groups, most of them related to the environment, climate change, or environmental justice — such as Greenpeace USA, Third Act, GreenLatinos, and Food and Water Watch. But some of the biggest names of the U.S. environmental movement were absent from the list, including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Nature Conservancy.

That’s not to say they’re pro-data center, though. “The speculative rush to build data centers is harming ratepayers, our climate, and community health, which is why we urgently need protections from states and the federal government,” Jeremy Fisher, the Sierra Club’s principal advisor, said in an emailed statement. The organization advocates for holding Big Tech to a higher standard in terms of environmental and health impacts and argues that companies should invest in clean energy to run their facilities instead of fossil fuels. “Data centers can and should be powered with renewable energy that does not threaten our environment and our health, our wallets, or our environment,” Fisher said.

Read Next A solution to data center backlash? Put them in oil fields. Jake Bittle

Thomas Meyer, the organizing projects director at Food and Water Watch, which led the letter to Congress, said that powering data centers with clean energy doesn’t solve the problem. In Washington state, for instance, Amazon outbid the utility Puget Sound Energy in an auction for an enormous Oregon solar farm, leaving the utility concerned about competition for renewable resources as Amazon races to build energy-hungry data centers. “What about the things that that solar power would have gone to power instead?” Meyer said. “You haven’t grown the pie. You’ve just shifted it from one place to another.”

Big green groups may also be taking cues from Democratic politicians, many of whom, like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, have been friendly to data center development. “The unfortunate reality is that some organizations tend to follow rather than lead, especially when it comes to mainstream positions of Democratic Party leaders or elected officials,” Meyer said.

Meyer witnessed a similar dynamic a decade ago when working as a field organizer on campaigns to ban fracking: a disconnect between grassroots energy and mainstream institutions. Established environmental groups tend to move more slowly than bottom-up movements, said Valerie Costa, co-executive director of the Oil and Gas Action Network, a nonprofit that supports grassroots groups working to move the U.S. beyond fossil fuels. “One of the things that grassroots movements do really well is shifting when there are more immediate threats, and being able to respond quickly,” Costa said.

That was recently in play in Seattle, where the climate activist group 350 Seattle joined the push to pass a moratorium on new large data centers after the news broke this spring that five major facilities could be coming to town. If all the projects were actually built, they would require about one-third the amount of power that Seattle uses on a typical day. The Seattle City Council passed the moratorium unanimously earlier this month, making it the largest city in the U.S. so far to suspend approvals. For local activists working on an issue as amorphous and overwhelming as climate change, it was invigorating to get involved in a mission with a concrete, local outcome. 

Audrey Wang Gosselin, a member of the Soapbox Project and a board member of 350 Seattle, speaks in favor of a data center moratorium at a Seattle City Council meeting. Courtesy of Renaissance

“For us, it was a very good on-ramp for people who just want to do something and want to turn that powerlessness into something meaningful,” said Nivi Achanta, the founder and CEO of Soapbox Project, a local climate action group that advocated for the moratorium. The group’s Signal chat buzzed as the city council weighed the policy: “People were, like, pulling out drinks and grabbing their popcorn and actually watching these city council politics unfold in a way that’s so much more fun than anything I’ve experienced outside of this, in the general climate movement,” Achanta said. 

In Washington state, known for its progressive climate policies, new natural gas infrastructure driven by power-hungry AI data centers threatens to produce an additional 13.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, about 14 percent of the state’s current annual emissions. That could derail its attempt to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, as required by the state’s Climate Commitment Act. Even in a blue state, there’s an understanding that opposition to data centers has to be bipartisan if it’s going to be successful, especially since most data centers are being proposed in rural areas. “We can’t just rely on the West Coast, or on the blue corridor from Bellingham down to Vancouver, Washington, to get something done,” said Lauren Redfield, a voluntary organizer with the Washington AI Resistance.

As climate activists join local fights, they may find themselves teaming up with people they don’t agree with on everything, or on much at all. Data centers are a rare issue that unites Americans across the political spectrum, with 75 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans opposed to building data centers in their area, according to polling from Gallup. All kinds of people — punk musicians in Utah, farmers in Oregon, beauty salon workers in Maryland — are coming out for all kinds of reasons, according to Levin, the host of “The Hum.” But their differences aren’t stopping them from working together. 

“Again and again, we hear from organizers who are like, ‘I don’t care if you’re here for climate change, and I’m here because I think it’s going to be ugly, and that person’s here because they hate AI’ — all of us think this is a bad project,” Levin said.

In the first three months of this year, data center opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 facilities worth nearly $130 billion. One reason this resistance has been effective is because of its people power — the hundreds of thousands of people who are turning out to town halls, meeting up on porches, and otherwise showing up to fight. In an age of loneliness and political disillusionment, it’s a sign that something is changing. 

“I’m really hopeful that this is the thing that gets communities re-engaged in local politics,” Redfield said. “We’ve seen a lot of apathy over the last several years, and I’m really hoping that this civic engagement can help us build that community that can help us stitch our society back together.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Climate activists take on a new foe: Data centers on Jun 29, 2026.

Toronto — KEVIN LOCKHART, director of the Buildings program at the Pembina Institute, made the following statement in response to the federal government’s announcement of new home retrofit funding via the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program:...