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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS Solar panel carbon footprint eclipses that of data centers
“There’s been a constant stream of headlines about energy demand recently, largely because of the influx of data centers — especially those needed to power AI. But these technologies are just a small part of a much larger story. Much of the increase comes from China, India, and Southeast Asia. “China is an especially major force. In 2024, about 300 terawatt-hours’ worth of electricity was used just to produce solar modules, batteries, and electric vehicles. 60% of electricity in China [and globally] is produced from coal. Air conditioners and a robust electric-vehicle market are all adding to China’s power demand. India and Southeast Asia are also going to have above-average increases in demand. “However, data centers are a major storyline for advanced economies like the US and many countries in Europe. As a group, these nations have largely seen flat or declining electricity demand for the last 15 years, in part because of efficiency improvements. Data centers are reversing that trend.” More at: Material footprint of renewables adds to ecological overshoot
“Joseph Merz is lead author of a new paper which proposes that climate breakdown is a symptom of ecological overshoot, which in turn is caused by the deliberate exploitation of human behaviour. Merz and colleagues believe that most climate ‘solutions’ proposed so far only tackle symptoms rather than the root cause of the crisis. This, they say, leads to increasing levels of the three ‘levers’ of overshoot — consumption, waste, and population. “Unless demand for resources is reduced, many other innovations are just a sticking plaster. Says Merz, ‘The material footprint of renewable energy is dangerously underdiscussed. These [solar and wind] energy farms have to be rebuilt every few decades – they’re not going to solve the bigger problem unless we tackle demand’. “Overshoot refers to how many Earths human society is using up to sustain – or grow – itself. Humanity would currently need 1.7 Earths to maintain consumption of resources at a level the planet’s biocapacity can regenerate. Where discussion of climate often centres on carbon emissions, a focus on overshoot highlights the materials usage, waste output and growth of human society, all of which affect the Earth’s biosphere.” More at: Less is more: how to degrow capitalism
“Less is More by Jason Hickel is a book with an ambitious subtitle: How Degrowth Will Save the World. Degrowth is often used as a confrontational word, but here is a nuanced view of how we can shift from an economy that’s organised around domination and extraction to one that’s rooted in reciprocity with the living world. “Obviously talking about capitalism in anything but glowing deference is a kind of heresy. But Hickel has little time for this, and says that shutting down the conversation about capitalism is to be naive about the power of human creativity. Besides, young people are not afraid of this conversation. “Less is More looks back to trace the origins of ‘growthism’ and capitalism. A central principle of capitalism is to take more than you give. Historically, that process has driven empire and slavery, and today it drives climate change and ecological breakdown. “We often assume that capitalism emerged naturally from the collapse of feudalism. Actually, capitalism requires elite accumulation of excess wealth for large-scale investment. But the egalitarian conditions of post-feudalist society were inimical to the possibility of elite accumulation. “Nobles, the Church, and the merchant bourgeoisie united to end peasant autonomy. They forced them off their land in a violent campaign of enclosure. The commons were fenced off and privatized for elite use to become ‘property’. For the first time in history, commoners were systematically denied access to the most basic resources necessary for survival — land and food. “Just as elites turned to enclosure at home, they sought new frontiers for appropriation abroad, beginning with Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas. Colonization provided the key raw materials that fueled the industrial revolution. Up to 5 million Indigenous Americans were enslaved to power the mines and plantations. Similarly, Britain exploited India to develop itself. “Under capitalism, growth always requires new frontiers from which to extract uncompensated value. It is, in other words, intrinsically colonial in character. “Capitalism is organized around the imperative of constant expansion, or ‘growth’: ever-increasing levels of industrial extraction, production, and consumption. This growth is measured as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “For capitalists, profit isn’t just money at the end of the day to be used for some specific need — for example, to pay the rent or put food on the table. Profit becomes ‘capital’, the whole point being that it must be reinvested to produce more capital. This process never ends — it just continues expanding. “This ideology claims to justify the continued exploitation of nature and human labor, even as we face the dire consequences of ecological breakdown. Material consumption has exploded from 7 billion tons per year in the early 1900s to over 92 billion tons by 2017. We have already crossed four of the nine planetary boundaries identified by scientists. “Green growth is a comforting but dangerous illusion. Precisely because of significant improvements in efficiency, global material and energy use continues to rise. Even with 100% clean energy, continued economic growth would still drive resource extraction and ecosystem destruction. “In 1865, the English economist, William Stanley Jevons, noticed something strange. James Watt had just invented his steam engine, which was significantly more efficient than previous versions, using less coal per unit of output. Oddly enough, rather than reducing total coal consumption, it soared. The reason, Jevons discovered, was that the efficiency improvement saved money, and capitalists reinvested the savings to expand production. This led to economic growth, which chewed through more coal. “Jevons described this as a ‘paradox’, but it’s not particularly surprising. Under capitalism, growth-oriented corporations don’t deploy more efficient technologies just for fun. They do so in order to facilitate growth. There’s no paradox: it’s exactly what economists expect. The technological innovations that contribute most to growth do so not because they enable us to use less nature, but precisely because they enable us to use more. “Degrowth proposes a planned downscaling of energy and resource use in high-income countries. Key aspects include: reduce unnecessary production and consumption, shorten the working week and distribute labor more evenly, expand public services and commons, end planned obsolescence, cut advertising to reduce artificial demand, shift to sharing economies, implement a cap on resource use and waste, and reform the money system to be debt-free and aligned with ecological limits.” More at: Indigenous wisdom episode #11: with Lyla June Johnston
“This podcast is about bringing forward the perspectives of Indigenous communities as we reckon with the consequences of a global, industrial society built on growth, extraction, and colonialism. “How is it possible to attain and maintain perspective on the polycrisis? Pain, suffering, and death seem to be on display everywhere you look. Here’s a taste of Lyla June Johnston’s perspective on our current predicament. “The polycrisis, and the collapse that we are learning about and experiencing — that crisis has been going on since 1492, right? For example, are we reaping what we’ve sown, you know, maybe the collapse is fruiting now? “And why are we so shocked that this is happening? It’s almost like Creator was giving us nine lives, but it’s like we were acting a fool. And he was patient and said, ‘Okay, well, let me give you another chance’. And we did it again and again and again, kept brutalizing each other, kept brutalizing the Earth. “The Earth can only take so much. She can actually absorb a lot of abuse; she can handle a lot of insanity. But only to a certain point, and at a certain point, we can’t go on like this. “Dr. Lyla June Johnston, who is of Navajo, Cheyenne, and European lineages, recently received her PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Indigenous Studies Program, with a focus on Indigenous land stewardship. She also has a degree in environmental anthropology, with honors, from Stanford University, and a degree in American Indian education, with distinction, from the University of New Mexico.” More at: More microplastics are in brain than in other organs
“In a new study, health sciences researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) have found microplastics in human brain tissue in concentrations much higher than in other organs. The plastic pieces appeared to be smaller than previous observations — roughly two to three times bigger than viruses. “Microplastics are tiny pieces of degraded polymers, now ubiquitous in our water, air and soil. They have embedded themselves all over the human body over the course of the last 50 years. Researchers detected and quantified a dozen different polymers, with polyethylene — widely used to make containers and packaging, including cups and bottles — being the most common. “To complicate matters, brain tissue from those diagnosed with dementia contained as much as 10 times the amount of plastic as everyone else, Campen said. However, the study was not able to determine if the high plastic levels in the brain were the reason for the dementia symptoms.” More at: Mump* regime betrayed the farm vote
“Many farmers voted for Trump because he promised less regulation and greater prosperity for America’s farmers. The hard truth is that, like most of the folks who voted for Trump, farmers failed to do their homework about the reality of the new administration. The buyers of U.S. farm products are not going to deal with nations that cannot be trusted. There are plenty of options in today’s world for those buyers to bypass the United States. It is almost laughable that some Republicans have come to the defense of Trump’s proposed tariffs, and that some of those same Republicans have promised to help the farmers who feel the impact. Really? We have an unelected multibillionaire who in effect bought the Trump presidency now running amok in Washington. On the one hand, we see unprecedented efforts (that is, without the advice and consent of the Congress) by some entity called DOGE [pronounced dodgy] to slash government spending, and on the other we hear some of Trump’s cronies promise aid for farmers. The two cannot be squared. Don’t bet the farm on help coming your way from this administration. Remember the old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. My fellow farmers — you’ve been played. This nation cannot exist as an island.” More at: * Mump regime — Musk plus Trump = Mu…mp. Army Corps told to fast track wetlands destruction
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has marked for fast-track review more than 600 permit applications for projects under President Donald Trump’s declaring a ‘National Energy Emergency’ executive order that would disturb critical wetlands and waterways. Some of the projects appear to have nothing to do with energy. “‘This is a false emergency’, said Kristen Schlemmer, waterkeeper with Bayou City Waterkeeper in Houston, part of the worldwide Waterkeeper Alliance. Many of the projects marked for fast-track review are fossil-fuel based, involving pipelines, gas-fired power plants and electric transmission lines, the Environmental Integrity Project said. Most are in West Virginia (141), Pennsylvania (60), Texas (57), Florida (42) and Ohio (41). “‘He’s telling the Corps of Engineers that it’s OK to cut down on the amount of time the Corps takes to review permits, which are used to fill wetlands and waterways in the United States’, said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the Environmental Integrity Project. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of its intent to sue the Army Corps. “The Clean Water Act does not authorize the Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Army Corps to limit or curtail their environmental review based on a declaration of any type of emergency. The Endangered Species Act only allows emergency reviews of agency projects following a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, under the Stafford Act.” More at: The adventures of Reddi Fox Jr. goes viral
“During Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing, he confidently declared, ‘We should be moving to value-based care, which includes prevention’. It should have always been self-evident that Kennedy is not pro-prevention, since he built his career as a vaccine denialist. It’s noteworthy that Kennedy kicked off his new role with a broad attack on drugs people use to prevent depression, diabetes, and other such conditions. “A Mump* executive order echoes Kennedy’s lie that there is an ‘over-utilization of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs’. Kennedy has long had it out for these drugs, and repeatedly argues that the only prevention most people need is better willpower. “Kennedy’s ‘solution’ looks very much like punishing them for perceived personal failures by putting people into labor camps, which he euphemistically calls ‘wellness farms’, as Mother Jones reported in July. They would be put to work full-time, presumably for little or no pay, doing agricultural work [NOTE: after migrant farm workers are deported]. “Meanwhile, President Donald Mump* is slashing billions from scientific research grants. Trump takes issue with the way the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds research grants. The president’s slash-and-burn approach threatens ongoing research and precludes reasoned discussion of how best to allocate money. “A federal judge announced last Friday she will extend a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration change from taking effect. The NIH provides about 50,000 grants to more than 300,000 researchers in every state. “Cuts require the involvement of Congress, which allocates NIH funding. When Mump* tried to cut indirect research costs in 2017 to 10%, Congress rejected that, writing, ‘The administration’s proposal would radically change the nature of the Federal Government’s relationship with the research community’.” More at: * Mump regime — Musk plus Trump = Mu…mp. Chernobyl nuclear plant bombed, no radiation leak
“A Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The attack came hours before the start of the Munich Security Conference. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the damage to the shell was ‘significant’ and had started a fire, but he added that radiation levels at the plant had not increased. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the strike had not breached the plant’s inner containment shell. The Ukrainian president said that the Chornobyl strike showed ‘Putin is certainly not preparing for negotiations’. Concerns have repeatedly been raised during the conflict over the safety of Ukraine’s four nuclear plants, especially the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — the largest in Europe and among the world’s 10 biggest.” More at: | 
