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TUESDAYS — YOUR INBOX — ASSUREDLY
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CURATED ECOLOGICAL NEWS
Richard Heinberg has died — we are impoverished
“On Sunday July 19th we lost our kind, brilliant friend and colleague, Richard Heinberg. The world has lost a voice of clear, truth-telling wisdom — a man whose work reached millions of people and fundamentally changed the lives of thousands. Perhaps that includes you. It certainly does me.
“Richard was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just two weeks before his passing. Please visit his memorial site to share your own stories or learn more about Richard.
“Countless people came to know Richard only through his books, articles, lectures, and interviews. That was one of his remarkable gifts. He challenged people to face difficult truths without giving up on beauty, community, or the possibility of living well within Earth’s limits.
“Richard displayed humility, gentleness, and joy — especially for someone grappling with such complex and difficult subject matter. An inveterate introvert, Richard was often quiet in groups but when he spoke it was additive, given with generosity, kindness, and humor, and always with a focus on the greater good.
“He had a talent for presenting complex issues in a brilliantly accessible way. He could weave together ecology, thermodynamics, history, anthropology, behavioral psychology, politics, and more into expansive explorations, as he did with his 14th and final book, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival.
“I think what Richard would want is for each of us to redouble our efforts towards his vision of people and nature thriving within ecological limits — one full of bird song, music, and laughter.” [click the links for the full articles]
The Singularity: we now dance to the tune of machine intelligence
“OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, said ‘We are now, like, in the singularity’. The singularity is often regarded as the point at which artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and begins advancing at a pace that’s difficult for people to predict or control.
“Last week an AI agent powered by OpenAI’s latest models went rogue. According to OpenAI, it broke out of its digital sandbox and hacked into datasets at Hugging Face, another AI company.
“Altman said ‘I’ve been waiting for this my whole life, and I think it’s going to be incredible, hugely positive, awesome for the world’. Altman said last year that AI would exceed human intelligence across the board by 2030. He has also said that the technology could eventually perform between 30% and 40% of the tasks humans now do at work.
“Altman criticized AI leaders who have repeatedly warned that AI is dangerous. He didn’t name Anthropic, his primary competition, but its CEO, Dario Amodei, is well-known for making dire predictions about the future in his calls for greater attention to safety.” [click the links for the full articles]
Nate Hagens on navigating the great transformation
“There is a clear and honest perspective emerging that refuses both despair and denial. It recognizes that humanity is entering an era of converging limits — energetic, economic, psychological, and civilizational. The question is no longer how to ‘solve’ climate change or stabilize markets, but how to live meaningfully, ethically, and collectively within a time of great transition.
“One of the clearest articulations of this emerging perspective comes from Nate Hagens in his recent essay, What To Do As the World Falls Apart. In it, Nate attempts a framework that holds together systems thinking, ecological reality, emotional maturity, governance, culture, economics, and human dignity without collapsing into either techno-utopianism or nihilism.
“He writes: ‘A nervous system constantly in sympathetic mode cannot hold complexity. A mind that is addicted to outrage, or to doom-scrolling, or to the dopamine cycle of social media engagement is not a mind that is available for the kind of patient, long-horizon work that this unfolding moment demands’.
“What follows is a simplified outline of Hagens’ framework. ‘Cultivate equanimity, rather than detachment or resignation. Equanimity is the capacity to hold difficulty without being destroyed by it; to act without needing certainty; to grieve without collapsing’.
“Build Collective Capacity. ‘This level is about building trusted networks. It means developing shared mental models, so that when something happens — a financial shock, or supply disruption — you’re not trying to start the conversation from scratch and can jump into the response, instead of explaining the background and premises’.
“Restore the Living Systems That Sustain Life. ‘. . .the fantasy that we will ‘tech’ our way through global heating while maintaining current economic throughput is a psychological crutch, not a plan’.
“Reweave the Human Story. ‘It’s the stories we tell about who we are, what a good life looks like, what we owe each other, and our relationships to the non-human world’.” [click the links for the full articles]
Border wall threatens west Texas dark sky region
“Unfettered access to the cosmos has fostered a community of dark sky defenders in Terlingua and across the Big Bend region of West Texas, who regularly ward off threats like too-bright store signs and intrusive car headlights.
“Now, they’re facing something far greater: the construction of President Trump’s border wall. Lighting has already been installed along stretches of the border in Arizona and farther east in Texas. That technology is there, and it is literally a flip of a switch away.
“For residents along the border, it’s about more than just seeing the stars. The natural darkness symbolizes a lack of development, a rural way of life. According to David Keller, an archaeologist and Big Bend historian, dark-sky maintenance protects the natural country of the place. ‘That’s why I’m here, and that’s why most people who live here are here’, he said. ‘It’s a national treasure. It’s too important to lose’.” [click the links for the full articles]
$billions for millions of orbital data centers
“Space data centers proposed by SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, and others would release staggering levels of pollution that would probably alter the Earth’s atmosphere and be ‘catastrophic’ for the planet, space industry experts and environmental groups warn in a new petition.
“Tech companies have collectively proposed millions of ‘orbital data centers’ and are pressing forward with plans, which require Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. Among other issues, pollution from satellites and rockets burning up upon re-entry appears to be accumulating in the stratosphere at alarming levels.
“The petition submitted to the FCC calls for a pause on new licenses for space data center projects, arguing that the plans ‘violate federal law’. The data center companies ‘describe their plans in grandiose, civilization-changing terms’, the petition states. ‘But these same proponents have refused to embrace any inquiry into the impacts of their self-claimed epochal technology’.
“Scientists only began to discover some of the impact in late 2023, when a NOAA-sponsored stratospheric measurement flight found metals in sulfuric acid aerosols that make up much of the stratosphere. These aerosols are thought to play an outsize role in regulating the Earth’s temperature, and may partly function as a planetary ‘sunscreen’.” [click the link for the full article]
Antarctic ice fluctuates, but is diminishing over long term
“Midsummer in the Northern Hemisphere marks the dead of winter in Antarctica, usually a time when temperatures plunge and the surrounding ocean ices over, nearly doubling the continent’s size. But this June, scientists found Antarctica’s west coast was missing a chunk of sea ice the size of France.
“The part [of Antarctica] that points up toward South America has extremely low sea ice for mid-winter. There’s no ice forming along this coast, and that’s extremely unusual in the last 50 years or so of keeping records.
“There’s a very strong wind pattern that’s pushing warm air from the South Pacific into this part of Antarctica, and the ice simply isn’t forming. The other part of this is the surface of the ocean is also unusually warm and pushing the ocean water around Antarctica.
“Ordinarily that area in Antarctica would be frozen over completely. The area south of South Africa has seen enough extra accumulation to mostly offset how much ice is being lost in some other parts. But for now the total mass is close to balanced for the last few years.
“In the long term, we know from ice core records in the past ice ages and warm periods that in general, a warmer planet means a smaller Antarctica and a higher sea level, and that’s what we can anticipate in the long term going forward.” [click the link for the full article]
Building sovereignty in food, housing, energy, and more
“We are heading down a perilous road. Vulnerable communities face growing threats. The climate crisis is outpacing scientists’ worst predictions. Authoritarianism is rising, with democracy backsliding across the globe.
“The political right is fighting for a clear, albeit dangerous, vision. The left, by contrast, is often fighting against that vision, with fewer compelling alternatives on offer.
“So what can we do? We build. We shift away from tweaking broken systems and instead direct our energy toward creating entirely new ones. And we can draw from history.
“Gandhi’s campaign for Indian independence wasn’t built on protest or disruption alone. Gandhi believed it’s also critical to build what he called constructive programs — alternatives to the unjust systems he sought to replace.
“The people have become almost entirely dependent on the services and structures owned or operated by states and mega-corporations, who far too often, exploit people for their own gain.
“To become genuinely empowered, people can work in community to meet their essential needs — food, housing, healthcare, education, energy, technology and economic stability. Communities can begin developing their own constructive programs that can radically shift the balance of power.” [click the link for the full article]
Day-length now shortening by two minutes a day
“Midsummer’s Day is long past. We saw the last of the 15-hour days in my part of the world on July 20th, and the shortening of the days is hastening toward the autumn equinox.
“We lose over two minutes of daylight each day now, and sunrises and sunsets are rolling south on the horizon by a degree every three or four days.
“The Hay Moon or Mead Moon is full on Thursday. The Old Farmer’s Almanac calls this the Buck Moon. Not sure why. But at Midsummer the deer with antlers are notable mainly in their absence.
“However, this Buck Moon follows the summer solstice. In the mythic calendar of Neo-Paganism, this is when the Oak King, the Green Man, the spirit of growth and bright vitality, yields to the Holly King, the dark essence of the deep wood and the principle of winter.
“In most years it works out that the much of the Hay Moon is a time without much harvest — beyond the hay, of course. I am a moon gardener of sorts, though I don’t put much stock in the effect of moon phases on the garden. However, paying attention to the time of year through the lens of moon cycles is very helpful.
“For example, the first couple weeks of the Sap Moon does work out to be a good time to plant the early veg most years. So if you’re planning out the garden in space and time, that’s as good a time as any to pencil in the patches of peas and arugula.
“Spend that time cultivating and tending to the new sprouts. Wait for the new Greenleaf Moon before starting the next flurry of sowing — which for me usually means the brassicas, potatoes, and cool season beans.” [click the link for the full article]
NDAs — secret assault on democracy
“Officials in a historic suburb of Birmingham have released a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) between city leaders and developers of a hyperscale data center.
“The release of the agreement came after environmental groups threatened to sue Bessemer over its unwillingness to share public documents related to the proposed construction of a 4.5 million-square-foot hyperscale data center on the rural southwest edge of the city of 25,000.
“The non-disclosure agreement prohibits the City of Bessemer from publicly releasing information related to Project Marvel in any of six categories — the project’s developers, site plans, and reports or studies, or any ‘other information that would reasonably be considered non-public’.
“The agreement contains a provision that requires city officials to destroy all copies of information the developer considers confidential when the agreement expires or at any time the developer requests. That includes copies of notes about the project taken by city officials, according to the agreement’s text.” [click the link for the full article]
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