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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS Many are mistaken about the climate damage from their actions
“Many people aren’t great at identifying which personal decisions contribute most to climate change. A study recently published found that when asked to rank actions that contribute to climate change, which is caused mostly by the release of greenhouse gases, participants weren’t very accurate when assessing those actions. “The top three individual actions that help the climate — including avoiding plane flights, choosing not to get a dog, and using renewable electricity — were the three that participants underestimated the most. “Meanwhile, the lowest-impact actions were changing to more efficient appliances, swapping out light bulbs, recycling, and using less energy on washing clothes. Those were the top four overestimated actions in the report. “Marketing focuses more on recycling and using energy-efficient light bulbs than on why flights or dog adoption are relatively bad for the climate. Some companies tout the recycling they do while not telling the public about pollution that comes from their overall operations. “‘There has been a lot of deliberate confusion out there to support policies that are really out of date’, said Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists.” More at: Global plastics treaty fails
“Global talks to reach agreement on a treaty aimed at ending the growing scourge of plastic pollution have collapsed, with no deal agreed and no clear path forward. Countries remained deadlocked on whether to reduce exponential growth of plastic production and place global, legally binding controls on toxic chemicals used to make plastics. “Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s minister for ecological transition, said France, the EU and more than 100 countries from every continent, ‘did everything possible’ to obtain an agreement to reduce plastic production, to ban the most dangerous products, and to protect human health. “Colombia’s delegate, Sebastián Rodríguez, said: ‘The negotiations were consistently blocked by a small number of states who simply don’t want an agreement’. Saudi Arabia and Kuwaiti negotiators suggested the latest proposal took other states’ views more into account. It addressed plastic production, which they considered to be outside the scope of the treaty.” More at: Sell your mama-Earth for an ever larger dopamine fix
“This episode explores the neuroscience of dopamine, and offers a reflection on the ways it plays into distraction, technology, and how we interact with the hyperstimulating world around us. Only since this podcast has taken on a larger portion of my life have I really become subject to ‘The Ghost of Dopamine Past’, because it creates higher and higher baselines of expected reward. And that’s what I’d like to talk about today. “So dopamine — we’ve heard a lot about this neurotransmitter. I discovered a famous neuroscience experiment by Wolfram Schultz and his colleagues, where they studied dopamine neurons in monkey brains while the monkeys performed a reward learning task. “The key insight from this research is that dopamine neurons don’t simply signal a reward, which is what is commonly understood. They signal the difference between expected reward and actual reward. And they fire most when the rewards are better than expected, and stop firing when rewards match expectations. “So this science explains why pleasures that we are familiar with, and that we anticipate, often feel less rewarding than the unexpected ones. I think this finding has major implications for understanding addiction, motivation, decision making, and as many of you might guess, for planetary boundaries and the human predicament. “So as we raise our level of dopamine in our system, we go out and pursue consumptive reward-based behavior. And in our culture, that behavior has a lot to do with physical and ecological impact on the goods that we consume. We have this level of dopamine neuron firing from going through our daily lives — reading a book, or seeing our cousin come and visit us, or going for a walk. “And what ends up happening is we have to have higher and higher levels of dopamine in order to feel the same sensations that we used to. So when I refer to ‘The Ghost of Dopamine Past’, what I mean is our behaviors, our decisions, our activities in the recent and distant past, to an extent, end up carving out neural pathways in our brain that require higher and higher base load dopamines to feel normal in our day. “So what do we do? I think one recommendation is dopamine fasting. Have certain periods in your day where you work for 40 minutes, take a 10 minute break, another 40 minutes, a 10 minute break. If I’m working on writing one of my scripts for the upcoming course, I will turn off the internet. I will actually disconnect it. Or technology free Saturdays. Or interject a dopamine neurotransmitter speed bump or a pause — so when you want to check your phone, just take a breath first.” More at: Ben Jealous fired as Sierra Club Executive Director
“Ben Jealous’ tenure at the Sierra Club has come to an end. ‘Following an extensive evaluation of his conduct, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to terminate Ben Jealous’ employment for cause. This was not a decision we took lightly’, an email to staff said. “Jealous had become the subject of widespread criticism among the Sierra Club’s rank-and-file after several years of budget cuts, layoffs and unfair labor-practice complaints at the organization. Both union and non-union members passed votes of no confidence in the former NAACP president. “Jealous responded in a statement: ‘While I was recruited at a time of significant, diverse challenges for the club, I was able to create the most diverse leadership team in the club’s history. The board and I strengthened a weak financial base, crafted a progressive union contract, dramatically increased chapter directors in red states, and increased our advocacy capacity by building a stronger field department’. He also made it clear that he planned to contest his dismissal.” More at: Mycorrhizal fungi symbiosis with plants is critical for all life
“With nearly every step, we move above a vast underground network of fungal filaments, an ancient communication system that predates human civilization by hundreds of millions of years. Mycorrhizal fungi cycle nutrients, store carbon, support plant health, and make soil. When we disrupt these critical ecosystem engineers, forest regeneration slows, crops fail, and biodiversity aboveground begins to unravel’, said Toby Kiers of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). “Now, scientists have created the first comprehensive maps of these hidden networks across the globe. The findings reveal that less than 10% of mycorrhizal fungi biodiversity hotspots fall within existing protected areas, leaving vast underground ecosystems vulnerable to destruction from agriculture and development. “Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic partnerships with more than 80% of plant species. These fungal webs can make up to a third of the living mass in the soil, allowing plants to share resources and communicate environmental threats across entire ecosystems. Plants transfer an estimated 13 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide to these underground fungi annually, roughly equivalent to one-third of global fossil fuel emissions. Much of this carbon becomes locked in soil, making fungal networks critical for climate stability. “‘For too long, we’ve overlooked mycorrhizal fungi’, said Merlin Sheldrake, study co-author and director of impact at SPUN. ‘These maps help alleviate our fungus blindness and can assist us as we rise to the urgent challenges of our times’.” More at: UN wetlands conference devolves into political impasse
“Scientists are urging delegates from more than 170 countries at a summit in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to step up ambitions to combat the continued destruction of wetlands, Earth’s fastest-disappearing ecosystem. Since 1970 more than 35% of wetlands have been lost or degraded. “The U.N. gathering of the Contracting Parties of the Convention on Wetlands comes just weeks after scientists released a dire warning about the destruction and declining health of global wetlands. Many developing countries described grave impacts on their people caused by wetland loss. Out of what remains, a quarter of the water bodies are in ecological distress. “The convention defines wetlands broadly, including marine systems, lakes, rivers and man-made sites like fish ponds and rice paddies. Wetlands feed billions of people globally, play a crucial role in replenishing drinking water sources, mitigate climate change and protect communities from intense storms and flooding. “Human activity is putting that at risk. The razing and filling of wetlands for agriculture, urban settlements and industrialization are top drivers of wetland loss. Intensive water use for agriculture and other industry accounts for a combined 89% of water withdrawals. That unsustainable extraction threatens wetlands’ ability to regenerate and maintain their natural cycles. “When wetlands are converted to other land uses, benefits tend to be held privately, while the cost of losing the wetland ecosystem services tends to fall on the disadvantaged.” More at: Five worst inventions
“Listening to a podcast conversation between Derrick Jensen and James Van Lanen (anthropologist), I was intrigued by their discussion of the ‘five worst’ inventions. This would get anyone’s gears turning. “Before placing an invention on the ‘worst’ list, we need to know something about the driving criterion. For me, it’s simple. The sixth mass extinction that appears to be underway is bad. Maybe it fully develops, and maybe it doesn’t. I would rather it not. “Values emerge in a living (social) species for a reason, and I — among many others — value biodiversity. Thus, any invention that facilitates a mass extinction is something I call bad. I especially focus on inventions that greatly amplify biodiversity loss. “We — embedded in and raised by modernity — know only one way of living, and it’s a way of ultimate failure. Nonetheless, even those who agree with the diagnosis that modernity is a cancer that we would prefer be rooted out, will have warm fuzzy feelings about some of the items on this list. I know I do. “I will present ‘The Worst Five’ in chronological order, as each built on the previous, and each accelerated the ill effects. - Agriculture: What Daniel Quinn calls ‘Totalitarian Agriculture’ had its beginnings about 10,000 years ago — a new development that radically changed our perceived place in the world.
- Writing: The first records of cuneiform writing, just over 5,000 years ago, allowed us to preserve a much larger set of durable thought fragments than is possible to hold at once in our meat-brains.
- Money: The ‘fictional’ construct of money had the ruinous effect of objectifying — commodifying — pretty-much everything, [including] living beings and the land supporting them all.
- Science: The powerful methodology of modern science extended our mastery and control by orders-of-magnitude over what agriculture and writing had done. Science opened up new lines of manipulation, control, and exploitation (lubricated by money/profit).
- Energy: Here I mean ‘mechanical’ energy of modernity — fossil fuels, dams, wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear plants, etc. It is access to substantial energy that drives rapacious global material extraction, transport, manufacturing, pollution, disposal, and all the ills of modernity.” More at:
Hurricane Erin — extreme rapid intensification
“The first Atlantic hurricane of 2025, Erin reached Category 5 status before weakening somewhat and becoming a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. Erin went from a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds at 11 a.m. Friday to a Category 5 with near 160 mph winds just over 24 hours later. Only four other Category 5 hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic on or before August 16. “Forecasters are confident that Erin will turn northeast and away from the eastern U.S., but it’s still expected to produce dangerous waves and rip currents and could bring tropical force winds to North Carolina coast, said Dave Roberts of the National Hurricane Center. As it does so, it is expected to double or even triple in size. “More hurricanes are rapidly intensifying in the Atlantic as the oceans and atmosphere warm in response to fossil fuel pollution and the global warming it causes. This likely makes Erin another example of the increasing extremes of a warming world.” More at: For the Donald, saving lives secondary to saving dollars
“President Donald Trump’s administration has quietly proposed shutting down the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, an independent federal agency charged with uncovering the causes of large-scale chemical accidents. White House officials said shutting down the agency, commonly called the CSB, will help ‘move the nation toward fiscal responsibility’. “Eliminating the CSB will come at a cost to the safety of plant workers and neighboring communities, especially along the Gulf Coast, where the bulk of the U.S. petrochemical industry is concentrated. “Founded in 1998, the CSB investigates the causes of petrochemical accidents and issues recommendations to plants, regulators and business groups. The CSB doesn’t impose fines or penalties, instead relying on voluntary compliance or on enforcement by other agencies such as the EPA. “On average, hazardous chemical accidents happen once every other day in the U.S., according to Coming Clean, an environmental health nonprofit. Coming Clean documented 825 fires, leaks and other chemical-related incidents between January 2021 and October 2023. The incidents killed at least 43 people and triggered evacuation orders and advisories in nearly 200 communities.” More at: | 
