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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS Indonesian volcano sends ash into troposphere
“Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in Indonesia sent gigantic ash plumes into the sky during two eruptions on Tuesday (June 17) and Wednesday (June 18). It unleashed a mushroom-shaped ash cloud measuring more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) high. An eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in November 2024 killed at least 10 people. The volcano also erupted in March 2025. “Geology agency head Muhammad Wafid said no one should carry out any activities within 7km of the eruption, and warned of potential lahar floods — a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials — if heavy rain occurs. Residents were also urged to wear face masks to protect themselves from volcanic ash. “An ash cloud reaching 7 miles in altitude is significant because it extends into the upper troposphere and potentially the lower stratosphere. Volcanic eruptions that propel ash and gases to these heights can have both immediate and long-term effects on global weather and climate. Ash clouds at 7 miles can block and scatter sunlight, causing temporary cooling at the Earth’s surface.” More at: 3rd SpaceX Starship in six months explodes during test
“SpaceX’s massive Starship exploded in a spectacular fiery blaze during an engine test in Texas. This time, the explosion was not a result of a launch, but a routine test to prepare the rocket for what would have been its 10th flight since 2023. All three of its 2025 test flights, Starship seven, eight and nine, all ended in failure. “The Starship erupted into a massive fireball on June 18, 2025, shortly after 23:00, local time, during a livestream, leaving commentators aghast and in disbelief. SpaceX described the event as a ‘major anomaly’. The mishap, which SpaceX later referred to on its website as ‘a sudden energetic event’, completely destroyed the spacecraft and ignited several fires that caused damage in the area surrounding the test stand.” More at: Heat dome ushers in first week of Summer
“A large heat dome that will dominate the weather pattern across the eastern two-thirds of the nation into late June will produce more than record-smashing temperatures, as severe thunderstorms will continue riding its periphery. The storms near the edge of the dome of high pressure, will be found mostly in the Plains and Upper Midwest in the coming days. “Temperatures and humidity will rise as much of the country finds itself under a heat dome. A heat dome occurs when an area of high pressure in the atmosphere traps warm air beneath, effectively like placing a lid on top of a pot. Temperatures are expected to reach nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) across the central and eastern U.S. (exceeding 100 F in some areas). “Last year was the hottest year for global temperatures since records began, while 2025 has already been marked by a string of record-breaking or near-record-breaking warm months. Conditions under the heat dome from the central Plains through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast should generally be dry and swelteringly hot into the early part of the week.” More at: Ecofeminists confront the rape of Earth and of women
“Allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro berated Brazil’s environment and climate minister, telling Marina Silva she was ‘hindering our country’s development’, and should ‘know your place’. ‘You just want me to be a submissive woman’, Silva replied. ‘But I am not’. “A lifelong Amazonian environmentalist credited with helping slash Brazil’s deforestation rates, Silva walked out after further verbal attacks from members of the pro-agribusiness bloc known for pushing policies that drive deforestation and land conflict with the people living in the rainforest. “For a growing women’s climate movement, the exchange was more than political theater. It revealed a connection between aggressive resource extraction and attacks on women. Ecofeminism, a theory that emerged in the 1970s, argues that the conquest of nature and the control of women stem from the same values. “Armed with data and their own experiences, women in this new climate movement are pushing beyond calls to simply increase female leadership in forums like the United Nations’ climate talks. They want to take down the systems they see as root causes of climate change, including patriarchy, capitalism, and extractivism.” More at: Perennial wheat: to improve, not deplete, the soil
“Through hybridization of winter durum wheat with intermediate wheatgrass, The Land Institute [in Salina Kansas] has developed a new type of perennial wheat which could live for years in the field. Five stable lines were obtained in 2018 and seeds are being propagated for further evaluation across the world. “In 2009, they developed their first perennial wheat line through the hybridization of bread wheat with intermediate wheatgrass. Elite lines of perennial wheat currently yield grain about 50-70% that of annual wheat cultivars. Twenty of the most promising crosses have been grown in nine different countries to see how particular genetic types vary in performance when grown. “The Land Institute established the perennial wheat program in 2001 with the goal of developing perennial wheat that is economically viable for farmers and replaces the global food calories of annual wheat. Their breeding program continues to seek improvement on a number of plant traits including perenniality and yield. They expect it could take another 10-20 years to develop an economically viable perennial wheat variety.” More at: One-third of forest losses was for land to feed billions
“Of the forest lost so far this century, roughly a third was destroyed to make room for farms, a new analysis finds. Those woodlands, which spanned an area larger than Mongolia, will likely never be restored. In tropical rainforests, the permanent loss is even more dramatic, accounting for 61% of deforested lands. “The remaining, temporary loss was largely the result of logging and wildfires, the analysis showed. While these forests could conceivably regrow, it would take decades for them to recover — if ever. ‘Just because trees grow back doesn’t mean forests return to their original state’, said coauthor Radost Stanimirova, of the World Resources Institute.” More at: Reforestation of ALL North America required to offset oil industry’s emissions
“A study published last Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment analyzed the benefits of planting trees as a means of balancing potential carbon dioxide emissions from the projected burning of oil reserves held by the fossil fuel industry. But researchers in England and France found that the tree-planting process, known as afforestation, faces insurmountable land use and financial challenges. “The world’s 200 largest fossil-fuel companies hold about 200 billion tons of carbon in their reserves, which would generate as much as 742 billion tons of CO2 if burned, according to the study. That’s far more than the budget required to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.5 degrees Celsius. “The researchers set out to calculate how much land area of afforestation would be needed to compensate for these emissions by 2050. The number they came up with was 9.5 million square miles of new trees — more land area than North America and part of South America.” More at: Microplastic poisons permeate the biosphere
“Every day, ocean life hangs out in the relative safety of deeper, darker waters. But at night, they move to surface waters where there’s more sustenance — and more microplastics — that they mistake for sustenance. “Researchers calculated that in the gyre that forms the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, fish consume up to 53 million pounds of plastic debris each year just in the mesopelagic zone, between 650 and 3,300 feet deep. Migratory species are therefore acting as vehicles to disperse microplastics farther down the water column. So even in the deepest depths, ocean life is feeding on microplastics. “Microplastics have penetrated the very base of the food chain — phytoplankton, which are responsible for two-thirds of the atmosphere’s oxygen content. They’re also a critical source of food for the other group of plankton — zooplankton, which include tiny species of animals like crustaceans and jellyfish and marine worms. “Biologists find petroplankton (aka microplastics) in the stomachs of captured zooplankton — baby salmon that (eventually) feed bears and humans, the crustaceans that feed fish and birds, the krill that feed whales. “Consider the journey of a polyester microfiber. During its life on your sweater, it’ll have gathered microbes from your skin and the air around you. Flushed to a wastewater treatment facility, the fiber is soaked in human waste, acquiring new microbes there.64 In a river, the plastisphere steeps in agricultural runoff rich in nutrients, which opportunistic microbes might thrive on. Finally in the open ocean, the particle encounters a still more alien saltwater microbiome.” More at: Degrowth from the grassroots up
“The crises coming upon our world – ecological, social, political – have a shared root, an economic system devoted to the accumulation and concentration of wealth and power, one which undermines the common good in favor of private and limited interests. “Facing a multifaceted crisis that is beyond the possibility of solving with tinkering-around-the-edges reforms, it is obvious that systemic change is needed. But dealing with a pervasive global system, where do we gain leverage points? How do we focus our efforts for change? What is the key idea? “Kohei Saito, in his groundbreaking work, Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto, identifies the problem as capitalism and poses a radical alternative he describes as degrowth communism (aka communalism or common-ism). As I detailed in the first two parts of this series, it is a profoundly different form of communism than the centralized industrial state socialism. “Saito envisions a cooperative network based on community self-management and mutual aid. He defines the central project as reclaiming the commons, now fenced off and monopolized to serve private interests. “To reclaim the commons, we must start in our communities, the places where we live. It is where environmental and social connections are most tactile and immediate, where we can find common solutions for housing, energy, food, water, transportation and other basics of life. “Saito writes, ‘Small instances of resistance to capitalism occurring all over the world . . . have the power to spread until they become a coordinated wave. In cities all over the world that have been impoverished by global capitalism, a groundswell is rising — everyday people are searching for a new kind of economy that will address their suffering’. “One of the most prominent examples of an urban movement achieving change is that of Barcelona. The city is held up as perhaps the planet’s premier example of what is known as municipalism. The very name of the party that has led efforts in that city, Barcelona en Comú – Barcelona in Common – calls to the essential project of reclaiming the commons.” More at: | 
