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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS Ecologically affordable housing
“For the past several years, I’ve argued that the future is rural, and that the hyper-urbanized world of today is not remotely sustainable and never can be. As the drunken fossil hydrocarbon party comes to a close, a different set of living arrangements will evolve that feature a more modest human existence. “In sketching out what this future might look like we can use history as a guide. Villages and small towns have persisted through the rise and fall of hundreds of empires. The fall of Rome wasn’t all that consequential to the lives of folks who inhabited villages in rural England or thousands of other countryside locales. “Despite the fact that today’s globalized, city-centric arrangement consumes so much energy and matter that its days are limited, the mainstream media, halls of government, and boardrooms of business continue to promote the wishful thinking of a techno-urban dreamland. I have been irked by articles on the U.S. housing crisis, which inevitably display suburban tract homes sprawling across the landscape or promote skyscraper apartments instead. “I lived for days, weeks, and months in places that are very different from the United States. I saw in Mexico, Bolivia, Madagascar, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and other places, people living as they have throughout much of history, at least of the agrarian period. Their dwellings were simple, constructed of local materials, and people made their livelihood at or near home. They didn’t appear unhealthy or unhappy with this situation. “Okay, I’m going to talk about the U.S. New homes sell on average for $665,000, which works out to $250 per square foot. This enormous sum, allocated among 2.3 people, is around $290,000 per person. It’s a lot of money, and, this is key, each of these residences is tied to an infrastructure that locks it into industrial-scale flows of energy and materials that are paid for by wage earners.” More at: The animal side of urban rewilding
“As cities expand, the natural world around them contracts. Species decline faster in and around cities than almost anywhere else. But what if cities could become part of the solution — places to actively restore biodiversity rather than just areas of loss? “To date, the rewilding movement has largely focused on reintroducing animals to “wilder”, more remote areas. Our review of more than 2,800 rewilding papers found only 17 in urban environments. While these numbers are low, their successes show rewilding cities can and does work. “Many cities are working to bringing back nature through tree planting, wetland restoration and expanding green spaces. But when it comes to wildlife, most urban nature restoration stops at plants, birds, bees and beetles. Less mobile animals such as reptiles and mammals are often left out. “For years, urban restoration has been done on the assumption that if you build it, they will come. That works for birds, bats and insects, who can fly in from outside a city. Bringing back small mammals and reptiles has to be done actively. Once back, these animals can take up vital ecological roles such as digging, scavenging and predation, which boost the health of soils, cycle nutrients and keep pests under control.” More at: 2025 Atlantic hurricane season more active than normal
“The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1 and runs through November 30. NOAA predicts a 60% chance of an above-normal season in the Atlantic basin this year. NOAA’s flagship hurricane forecast model, the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), is expected to improve forecasts of rapid intensification, defined as an increase of winds by 30 knots in 24 hours, by 5-7%. “There is a 33% chance that a major hurricane will make landfall this year somewhere along the Gulf Coast from the Florida panhandle to Brownsville in far south Texas. Experts predict there will be 17 named storms during this year’s Atlantic hurricane season. Nine of the 17 named storms will become hurricanes and four will reach major hurricane strength — meaning a category 3, 4 or 5 storm with sustained winds of 111 MPH or more.” More at: FEMA hobbled by deep staff cuts
“The U.S. federal disaster agency FEMA has sharply reduced training for state and local emergency managers ahead of the start of the hurricane season on June 1, according to current and former officials. The training cutbacks could leave storm-prone communities less prepared to handle the often devastating aftermath of hurricanes. “Some 2,000 FEMA employees — or about a third of full-time staff — have been fired or accepted incentives to quit since President Donald Mump* took office in January and declared that the agency should be abolished and its functions handed over to the states. Last week, Mump* fired FEMA’s acting chief, Cameron Hamilton, a day after Hamilton told lawmakers that the agency should be preserved. “Since February 5, FEMA staff have been barred from travel unrelated to disaster deployment and other limited purposes. Few speaking requests have been approved, leading the National Hurricane Program to cancel some trainings for emergency managers in storm-prone areas or move them online.” More at: * Mump regime — Musk plus Trump = Mu…mp. Car-lite neighborhoods: best for household reduction of CO2
“Urban form shapes transportation behavior. Built environment characteristics such as housing density, street connectivity, and proximity to jobs and services help determine how many miles people have to drive every day. Passenger travel in cars and trucks represents the single largest source of climate pollution from U.S. households. “Many policymakers are trying to enable housing growth in communities where people can accomplish their daily activities without so much driving – meaning reducing reliance on cars when new communities are planned. But have we made progress? We analyzed neighborhoods throughout the contiguous United States,[1] focusing on average daily miles of car travel by residents. “We divided U.S. neighborhoods into five categories based on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per resident in 2023 (Table 1). In lower-VMT neighborhoods, daily destinations such as schools and grocery stores may be within walking distance, and typical trip distances are modest even when people drive. In higher-VMT neighborhoods, many daily destinations require driving, often via high-traffic roads and freeways, and commute distances tend to be longer. “Across the United States, much of the housing found in lower-VMT neighborhoods was built before 1940. Sprawling, car-oriented development patterns were more prevalent between 1971 and 2010, with most housing built in low-density neighborhoods. Even as new housing between 2011 and 2019 tended to be built in lower-VMT neighborhoods, the number of these homes declined after 2010, exacerbating the housing shortage and affordability crisis.” More at: Clear cutting the forest to “save” it from fire
“Today, most visitors to the Black Hills will still see lots of big trees that are intentionally left standing by the highways. The Forest Service calls this ‘scenic integrity’; detractors call it a ‘green screen’. If you pull off on side roads, you’ll soon come to wide plots of land that have been commercially logged. “The 1.5 million acres of forest sprawling across western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming have weathered a historic beetle infestation and a giant fire. Now the land faces more threats from the Trump administration. In April came an ’emergency’ directive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fast-track logging on nearly 60% of the Black Hills. This authorizes increased removal of trees. Wildfire risk reduction is one of the cited reasons behind the USDA order. “Yet there’s a big irony — the President’s push is unlikely to greatly increase timber production. The reason is simple: ‘We don’t have that many big trees left’, said Dave Mertz, retired from the U.S. Forest Service. “The Lakota named the area Pahá Sápa — ‘hills that are black’ — for the looming, dark ponderosa pines. When the Lakota and other tribes stewarded the land, they used controlled burns to clear underbrush and manage bison habitat. In the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States designated Pahá Sápa as ‘unceded Indian Territory’ exclusively for use by Indigenous peoples. Just six years later, General George Armstrong Custer violated the treaty and broke the law by leading an expedition into the Black Hills.” More at: Bee report aimed to help safeguard pollinators
“A new report from Bee:wild outlines the 12 biggest emerging threats to bees over the next five to 15 years. Among the emerging threats are war zones, microplastics, poorly planned tree planting, antibiotic pollution, air pollution like ozone, increased indoor farming, a higher demand for mining materials, pesticide cocktails, artificial light at night, pollution from toxic heavy metals, larger and more frequent wildfires, and regional loss of pesticide tracking. “This new report underlines that the range of threats are expanding. Rather than being filled with hopelessness, the purpose of the Bee:wild campaign is to fuel awareness, urgency and give everyone agency. Pollinators like bees, bats, butterflies and some birds are essential to nature and the world’s food supply, with more than three-quarters of the planet’s major crops dependent on them. The report also highlights measures we can take to safeguard pollinators and reverse their decline.” More at: Musk cashing in on DODGY “cost savings”
“The White House unveiled a barebones budget blueprint last month that would pump more of the federal budget into the Pentagon while taking a chainsaw to education, foreign aid, health care and public assistance programs. Total defense spending would increase by 13% to $1 trillion. “Elon Musk claimed that he would cut costs at the Pentagon with his minions at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DODGY). Instead, experts say that, if approved, the Donald’s bloated Pentagon budget will almost certainly benefit Musk and his company SpaceX with huge new projects. The first is a missile shield, dubbed the Golden Dome, which is reminiscent of the Reagan-era ‘Star Wars’ missile-defense boondoggle. “Musk understands that there is a lot of money to be made in missile defense. The program has grown from a relatively modest $3 billion a year, back when Ronald Reagan first started talking it up during the 1980s, to over $30 billion a year for ‘missile defense and defeat programs’ today. “Musk’s SpaceX has emerged as a front-runner to win crucial parts of the Golden Dome project. Unlike Israel’s Iron Dome, which defends that tiny country against short-range threats, America’s Golden Dome would need to cover a much larger area against a more challenging range of weapons, including ICBMs and hypersonic missiles. “Space Systems Command announced the award of three National Security Space Launch contracts to SpaceX, United Launch Services, and Blue Origin. The deal would support about 50 missions through 2029, helping to launch some of the military’s most sensitive satellites. SpaceX’s CEO Gwynne Shotwell has said the company has about $22 billion in government contracts. The vast majority of that, about $15 billion, is derived from NASA. “The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members believe that Musk’s ‘formal or informal participation in any process to award a government contract raises serious conflict of interest concerns.” More at: Degrowth through communism-communalism-common-ism
“Degrowth communism. It is hard to think of two more triggering words. Words which raise red flags. One quite literally. Degrowth, which to many raises images of voluntary simplicity in a somewhat bucolic, post-industrial, neo-anarchistic setting. Contrasted with communism, which stirs up pictures of Soviet smokestacks, forced industrialization to drive increased production. “That gets it all wrong, says Japanese author Kohei Saito. Degrowth, while implying a lower level of material consumption, means abundance in values not captured in Gross Domestic Product statistics, particularly the most valuable, our time, says Saito. “Regarding communism, Saito invites us to recast his revised understanding as communalism or common-ism. For, to Saito, the true meaning of communism is to reclaim the commons walled off by capitalism. Saito quotes German sociologists Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen who describe the lifestyle of the Global North as the Imperial Way of Living. It is characterized by ‘large scale production and consumption’. “Saito puts a simple question: “What produces plenty, capitalism or communism? Most people would surely answer capitalism. But that’s not the whole truth . . . Doesn’t capitalism in fact cause scarcity (author’s emphasis), at least for 99% of us? Couldn’t we say that the more capitalism advances, the more hardship does? “The Japanese Marx scholar tracks an evolution in Marx’s thinking that in his later years was heavily influenced by non-Western and indigenous communal models, as well as ecological sciences. Unlike his younger self, he no longer saw the need for a phase through capitalist industrialism, which he came to believe was inherently destructive of nature. “Key to understanding Saito’s proposition is that capitalism causes scarcity. The scarcer a thing is, the more you can charge for it. The classic case is the enclosure of the commons in Europe. Thus the richer classes could monopolize the means of production formerly available to all, and through the resulting scarcity drive the peasants into cities to work in their factories. This was the basis of capital accumulation. “Capitalism manufactures artificial scarcity to perpetuate itself. This makes abundance its natural enemy. The key to restoring radical abundance is reclamation of the commons. Indeed, it’s the commons that will enable us to overcome capitalism and restore radical abundance in the twenty-first century. ‘Reclaiming the commons is communism’, Saito proclaims.” More at: | 
