Amsterdam is best known for lax laws around drug use and prostitution, but now they can be known as the first city to ban ads in public places for products and services that are particularly bad for the planet. If you spend lots of tax money and have lots of policies trying to manage climate change in Amsterdam, why would you rent out your public walls to exactly the opposite?" …

From a climate perspective, contrails from planes both reflect sun back into space but also act as a greenhouse gas. Roughly one-third of aviation’s climate impact comes from these contrails. So starting November, planes flying over the North Atlantic will be told to fly at levels that should avoid making contrails. Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS on Pexels.com Starting in November, air traffic controllers managing the Shanwick airspace on the eastern side of the North Atlantic will advise planes to adjust their altitude to avoid creating fresh contrails.

Farmers are quitting. Last year an area the size off the Big Island of Hawaii, 2.5 million acres, went out of production in the US. But even after a century, the land will have only recovered about half of the plant productivity. But research by Argonne Labs has shown that covering the land with solar panels can help nature recover in four years.

Car companies can boost fuel efficiency by putting low-resistant tires on new cars. But when they wear out, owners often buy tires that are less fuel efficient, costing them at the gas pump. So California has just passed legislation to label tires and cull the least efficient ones. All-weather and snow tires are exempt, for now.

Europe has had extended producer responsibility regulations on the books since 1994, requiring that manufacturers pay for recycling or take the products back. They just made the regulations stricter to eliminate toxic forever chemicals and facilitate recycling. Seventy percent of packaging must be reused by 2040. Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com Prioritize recyclable materials: Companies must shift to packaging formats that are 80 percent recyclable by weight, by 2030.

In its test flight, the X1 only used $5 of electricity to fly for half an hour. That may not sound like a long time, but most of the power is used in take off. You won’t be flying the friendly skies in one of these all electric planes soon (unless you’re taking an air taxi) but the testing informs the company’s work on hybrid aircraft.

When you think of tipping points, you likely think of bad things, like climate change. But tipping points can do the opposite, creating a cascade of good things. Cheap solar energy cleans the air, improving human health. Țhe people who run the Earthshot Prize have released a report, basically a roadmap for how we turn our world around. They use it as a guide to choose winners for their prizes, but you can use it to find something you want to work on.

Artificial intelligence is part of the reason that demand for electricity is growing, that and a hideously hot summer. It matters where states get their energy, from clean or dirty sources. There are some interesting outliers. Check to see how your state compares. Here’s a chart of changes to state’s generation of electricity. Keep in mind that states can purchase power from elsewhere—except Texas.

According to a recent report, The Global Commission on the Economics of Water, the world is running out of fresh water, fast. We may have over subscribed the supply by 40 percent by the end of this decade. It’s not just a problem for the Colorado River. The problem is worldwide and crosses national boundaries. The world faces a growing water disaster.

In 2013 a child in London died from an asthma attack but the cause of death was later changed to air pollution, a first. Air pollution affects lung development, causing asthma and other respiratory diseases. A recent study showed how quickly their lungs recover when the air quality improves. "I was absolutely stunned when I first saw the results.” Prof Chris Griffiths, a senior author on the study, …

I wrote up my insights from our first electric vehicle roadtrip. You can find it on Substack. In a nutshell, I worried too much planning the trip. If you like to stop every 1-2 hours, simply plan your stops at charging stations. In that style of driving, the maximum charging speed of the vehicle will matter more than range.

Eleven million households in the US have tanks of freshwater fish,and goldfish are among the most popular. But the fish are not a thing, they are a sentient creature. An Argentinian court granted them legal rights. After spotting two goldfish, named Fede and Magui, in a glass display case in a sushi restaurant in Buenos Aires, animal-rights nonprofit and sanctuary Jaulas Vacías (Empty Cages) decided to act.

European and US automakers have largely ignored smaller markets for their electric vehicles. But the Chinese company BYD saw an untapped market. Their EVs are selling so fast that Argentina's market share of EVs will likely surpass the US around the end of this year. “We’re like the Apple of vehicles.” Bornancini, the dealership’s sales manager BYD sales reps are picking up weekend shifts just to keep pace, delivering 12 to 15 cars a day to customers trading in gas-powered vehicles for a brand that many had never heard of just six months earlier.

We definitely need a way to recycle textiles at the end of life, but it’s even more disgusting that retailers over-buy and then throw out brand new but unsold merchandise. So the European Union has just made it illegal for large companies to do that. Middle sized companies will be next. Photo by NEOSiAM 18+ on Pexels.com According to the European Environment Agency, an estimated 4-9% of all textile products put onthe market in Europe are destroyed before use, amounting to between 264,000 and 594,000 tonnes of textiles destroyed each year.

There’s a lot of controversy about data centers: energy use, water use, land use. Some cover 200 or more acres. (They should only be build on brownfields, IMHO.) Think of all the concrete (a huge source of greenhouse gases), the materials, the gravel. But that’s not the worst part. There is no thought about what happens when they quickly reach their end of life.

There’s a lot less talk about climate change in the media but that doesn’t mean the problem is getting better. It's getting worse. Those of us who understand the problem need to do a better job of communicating with those who might care if could just get the messaging right. Potential Energy Coalition has tested a wide range of messages with people in multiple countries.

When you think of causes of death, you probably think of cardiovascular problems, cancer and such. Or if you watch too many Britbox mysteries, murder. But increasingly heat is being attributed as a cause of death. Certainly people can die from heat while hiking in the desert, but it can also exacerbate other health conditions, overwhelming the body’s ability to cope.

The Environmental Performance Index for 2026 was just released and there are some surprises. Now using AI to fill in certain metrics, the index looks at progress on 47 indicators related to air quality, ecosystem vitality and climate change mitigation. This year Estonia earned the top spot with a one-off action, shutting down oil shale power plants. That will be a hard act to follow if Estonians want to keep their top spot.

How do you provide quality emergency healthcare in remote locations? Students at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have an answer: a solar powered ambulance. It’s being tested in Kenya. “The ambulance is almost Cybertruck-like in appearance, but it packs a much bigger punch than a standard pedestrian vehicle. It generates energy through solar panels on its roof, which then drives the vehicle and powers medical equipment on board.

The question, “What’s in your wallet?” doesn’t just prompt you to consider points, benefits and interest rates. You can also choose a card with a lower carbon footprint. Mastercard has been net zero since 2020 for its own operations, and has been chipping away at the impact of their suppliers. Since 2016, they’ve reduced climate warming gases by 47 percent and are on track to be carbon neutral by 2040.

The United Nations just released a report on climate change and what we have to do NOW to avoid serious, serious consequences. We are going to overshoot the 1.5C climate goal. The question is by how much and for how long. And what type of world we will have afterward. Please read it (or versions of the report, see links below) and then take even more action than you already have.

Since trees are living beings and each tree represents an ecosystem, a town in Quebec has granted them certain rights. Just like Dr. Seuss’s character, the Lorax, they will speak for the trees. A resolution adopted by Terrasse-Vaudreuil city council on June 9 declares that trees are worthy of protection, "including the right to life, to natural growth, to integrity and to regeneration."

The best part about winter coming is the road construction stops. But the Swiss have come up with an innovative solution. They have a mobile bridge system that lets traffic flow over the area where they are working. In addition to not causing delays, this system allows workers to operate during the day rather than the middle of the night. It shades them from the sun.

The Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve has built a horizontal levee. Rather than a steep, rocked seawall, it looks natural. It’s covered in native plants and will clean wastewater before it reaches the bay. The levee may also help the “salties,” an endangered mouse that lives in the marshes. Seeded with over 35 species of native plants, the site is a pilot for what’s known as a horizontal levee, or living levee, blending into the estuary’s natural scenery as it spreads its feet of added height over a longer area.

Sorry, humans. Here's yet another example of tool use in other species. Dolphins in Australia have been seen catching fish in large shells, and are likely teaching their calves to do the same. “We were on a research boat off Hervey Bay when we spotted a dolphin raising something large out of the water,” says animal behaviouralist and marine mammal expert Alexis Levengood, who led the study, published in the journal…

Across Europe, you’ll find verges, segments of land along roadsides intended to provide habitat for pollinators and other creatures. After researchers counted everything they saw in these verges, two insights emerged. Borrowing from the campaign maxim, It’s the flowers, stupid. Photo by Frank Schrader on Pexels.com Verges rich in nectar-producing flowers did not simply support a few more insects – they supported noticeably more bees, butterflies, and hoverflies, and a wider range of species too.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Take biosolids from sewage treatment plants and use it as fertilizer on fields. But sewage waste concentrated pharmaceuticals and forever chemicals, tainting the soil. Up to now, removing those chemicals could cost up to $1 million per acre. But a new study has found a cheaper solution that could also help climate change.

Up to now, farmers with a broken John Deere tractor had to wait for the company to send out a tech to fix it. Sometimes it took weeks. Now they can fix it themselves or get someone local to do it. Colorado in 2023 became the first state to pass a law guaranteeing right to repair, and now industry leader John Deere has acknowledged that right should exist across the country, said Tyler Garrett, chief executive of the trade group Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.

France is done with handwringing about the effect of social media on our children. Their National Assembly passed a ban by a wide margin. It goes into effect in two stages: stopping new accounts this September and closing existing accounts early next year. “The ban was to be rolled out in two stages, with under-15s blocked from creating new accounts from September 1.

They used to get a lot of money from oil and gas. But then their springs and streams started to dry up. So 15 years ago, the tribal nation started looking to solar. The Trump administration’s policies have put probably a third of new renewable generation on hold, but this project is moving ahead, having squeaked through before the new policies went into place.

That’s the question the Sustainable AI Infrastructure Forum tried to answer. Why it matters The scale of build out is historic and we will have to live with the decisions for many decades. One of the largest planned in 2026, Meta Hyperion in Louisiana has ordered 10 gas fired power plants and will cover 3600 acres. Capital spending on AI infrastructure is on track to surpass $1 trillion as soon as 2027 — the largest infrastructure buildout in U.S.

Who would have thought a book about the Supreme Court could be funny. And illuminating. While the topic of the book may seem unrelated to sustainability, the Supreme Court increasingly is having to decide issues about separation of powers—which in this administration, has a lot to do with sustainability—because Congress, as the author puts it, is AWOL. Sarah Isgur is a member of the Federalist Society and hosts the Advisory Opinions podcast.

We’re all concerned about data centers gobbling up land, driving up energy costs, and depleting water supplies. A company in Portland, Oregon has developed data centers that use the ocean both to power and cool them. Answers are sent back via satellite. They are self propelled so there are no cables to tangle whales. The first commercial model should be in the water this month (August 2026).

Two students at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) sued the university for not providing vegan options in the cafeteria, saying it violated their rights and ethics. Before, they had asked nicely. The university called their petition “absurd,” so the students went to court and won. On June 3, 2026, the Sixth Constitutional Court of Peru ruled in favor of the students and ordered UNMSM to introduce vegan meal options in its cafeterias.

You’ve heard of plug-in solar (aka, balcony solar) where homeowners or renters buy a couple panels and plug them into an outlet. Did you know there are now plug-in batteries? Unlike the better known Tesla Powerwall which requires an electrician, these plug-in batteries just plug into an outlet. They can save households money, even without solar panels, by storing electricity while it’s cheap and using it during peak times.

For decades, mangroves were disappearing. These are critical nurseries for fish and they protect the coasts from storm surges. They also sequester more carbon per acre than a forest. But a recent study shows they’ve rebounded, and are almost back to historic levels. Mangroves are the most carbon-rich ecosystems in the world.  “Carbon sequestration in coastal mangrove ecosystems is 2 to 4 times higher than in tropical forests, and their carbon stocks can be 3 to 5 times greater due to substantial belowground storage” …

There has been anecdotal evidence that urban trees are good for people. They filter out pollutants and cool the area. In Louisville, KY, the university and The Nature Conservancy collaborated on a research project to quantify the benefits. Starting in 2020, they started planting trees, over 8000 large ones in parks, in people’s yards, along streets. In 2025, they assessed whether those living within the greenery were healthier.

Traditional solar panels do change the look of a roof. Tesla has put their roof tile business on the back burner, but in Italy, small companies have figured out how to make solar panels that look like ancient clay tiles. They’re creating energy in places like Pompeii. This is from historic city of Évora

I'm just back from a wonderful Alaska trip where we got on the ground with brown bears. In this Substack post, I share some reflections about how stories undermine our relationship with Nature. Read the story on Substack Image credit: Marcus, our guide.

While we may eventually be able to use our car batteries as home energy storage, that scenario is likely years out. You need a V2G (vehicle to grid) electric vehicle and a utility ready to allow it. In the meantime, you might consider getting a home battery. They’re not cheap (like around $10,000). But if you fall into one of these categories, it can make sense:

Conventional wisdom asserts we can’t run industries on renewables but this ethanol plant in South Dakota has proved that’s wrong. They store excess wind energy in blocks of solid carbon as heat (like up to 2400 degrees, hotter than lava). It only took a year to build the system, and these batteries cost about one-tenth of a lithium ion. And the carbon comes from byproducts from other industries in the US.

If you’ve seen My Octopus Teacher, you may want to know that you can do something to help these amazing creatures. In 2025 a bill was reintroduced in Congress that could ban octopus farms, which would be inhumane. This post explains why it matters and what you can do: write your representatives to support the bill, Opposing the Cultivation and Trade of Octopus Produced through Unethical Strategies (OCTOPUS) Act (S.

In many parts of the world, eating insects is commonplace. But in much of the Western world, this is considered gross. But a small study in Portugal shows that people preferred the insect protein bar to the oat energy bar, despite their initial misgivings. If it doesn’t look like a bug, people may eat it. Thirty-eight adults in Portugal aged between 18 and 55 took part in the study.

The transmission system is like our highways; it moves large amounts of energy around the grid but simply maintaining it is underfunded, not to mention upgrading the grid for renewables. But SunZia has completed a large wind farm in New Mexico with a transmission line into Arizona which will serve the Southwest. It’s the largest high voltage direct current system in the US and one of the largest in the world.

Iron-air batteries can store energy for up to 100 hours (roughly 4 days), making them a good choice to store utility scale renewable energy. Europe has a deal with Ore Energy to put in the biggest system yet, a gigawatt hour, enough to power a million homes for one hour. “Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which are typically designed to deliver energy over a few hours, Ore Energy’s iron-air batteries can store electricity for up to 100 hours.

India currently imports most of the materials needed in electronics and electric vehicle batteries. So in their pursuit of the Circular Economy, they are building a large, state of the art recycling facility. NAN Silox GreenMet transforms the growing end-of-life battery stream from EVs, electronics, and energy storage into a domestic, circular, sovereign capability. The Company will develop and operate a state-of-the-art industrial facility to process spent batteries through shredding, beneficiation and hydrometallurgical refining, enabling the recovery of strategic materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese.

Kevin Bacon is now Kevin Bean, temporarily. He, along with Humane World for Animals, is promoting beans as an alternative to animal protein. On Wednesdays, trade out a meat meal for beans. Sign the pledge! “Over the years, I’ve developed a deep connection with animals,” the actor said. “You get to know them as individuals, and it makes you reflect deeply about the food choices you make.

While the company and EPA dispute the allegation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation has said that those living near fields sprayed with Paraquat are at greater risk of getting Parkinson’s. There is however no doubt that it’s so toxic that farmworkers have to be tested on safe use practices every three years. And the chemical is banned in many other countries.

It seems everyone is talking about the housing shortage. One of the things that drives up costs and timelines is our permitting process. In most of the country, if a developer wants to build several identical houses, they have to get a separate permit for each dwelling. A city in Oklahoma is trying something different: preapproved plans. Forty percent of new construction has used these plans.

Rebuilding for Resilience is a guide for people in fire-prone regions.