Category: Ecology

Renewables Pass Coal’s Share in Global Electricity Generation

China is leading the way here in solar… It’s time for our leaders and economy here in the US to start waking up to reality. That won’t happen in the current scenario of our political landscape, obviously, but there needs to be intentional focusing on reducing consolidated power grid structures in favor of local (and flexible) sources of electricity and fuel (as well as our food supplies). 

Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025 | Ember:

Solar and wind outpaced demand growth in the first half of 2025, as renewables overtook coal’s share in the global electricity mix…

Solar grew by a record 306 TWh (31%) in the first half of 2025. This increased solar’s share in the global electricity mix from 6.9% to 8.8%. China accounted for 55% of global solar generation growth, followed by the US (14%), the EU (12%), India (5.6%) and Brazil (3.2%), while the rest of the world contributed just 9%. Four countries generated over 25% of their electricity from solar, and at least 29 countries surpassed 10%, up from 22 countries in the same period last year and only 11 countries in H1-2021…

PDF Report availalbe here

Insurance in the Era of Climate Collapse

Last night we were enjoying the beautiful weather here in Spartanburg, SC at our local community gathering spot / coffee shop / bar / outdoor space and had a conversation with a friend about her ongoing frustrations to get their home renovated after Helene last year due to insurance struggles and delays.

Having lived in the Carolinas for most of my life, I’ve heard countless stories of insurance frustrations, debacles, and failures following a hurricane. That’s only escalating, as we saw here in Western North and South Carolina after Hurricane Helene hit this area a year ago (and the two properties across the street from our home remain uninhabited (by humans… the birds and squirrels, and deer seem to be enjoying!), with trees on their roofs).

Fascinating read here on the insurance industry and climate considerations…

How McKinsey and Climate Change Wrecked Insurance | The New Republic:

Bahan’s insurance nightmare was one of many related to me during a visit to southwestern Florida, where residents have endured three major hurricanes—Ian, Helene, and Milton—in as many years. Each tale turns on its own particular outrages and ironies, but common themes aren’t hard to spot: eye-watering rate hikes, dropped policies, shady adjusters, paltry payouts, and claims denied for dubious reasons. State Farm, for instance, closed 46 percent of 2023 claims after issuing no payment whatsoever, and it was hardly an outlier. Meanwhile, even as they were doing everything possible to limit payouts, insurance companies were socking away massive profits, according to a secret state report that became public just a few weeks before my trip. While Florida’s situation is extreme, it represents an early warning sign in a troubled property insurance system that is, as U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse put it in a 2024 committee hearing, “swirling the drain.”

Inside the Fight Against Trump’s Alaska LNG Pipeline

Beautiful (but also depressing if you’re frustrated and anxious about such things like me) article here regarding the need to stop using extractive fossil fuels (that are now based on antiquated technologies and inefficient methods in order to prop up megaglobal corporations that pay our elected officials to keep the old narrative of “energy independence”) with voices from Alaskan Indigenous communities resisting the latest push from our backwards administration.

Don’t be misled about the energy issue by media manipulation. We can and should move to decentralized and community-focused solutions. It’s being done and done well and will save us all money, karma, and our children’s health.

Must read…

Inside the Fight Against Trump’s Alaska LNG Pipeline:

“We’re on the bust side of an oil and gas economy,” Native Movement’s Begaye tells me. She points to the relative youth of the industry — just 50 years — “and the jobs are already going away, the money is going away,” she says. Today, revenue from oil and gas accounts for less than 14 percent of the state’s annual budget.

Instead of investing in “fossil fuel distractions, we could be actively pursuing more local renewable energy, and Alaskans already know how,” Begaye and her colleagues wrote in their op-ed for the Anchorage Daily News. They cite Kodiak, which runs on nearly 100 percent renewable energy, and Galena, where a tribally owned and operated biomass system accounts for 75 percent of the community’s heating needs, with another 1.5 megawatts of solar power on the way.

R.I.P. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall, legendary primatologist, has died at age 91 : NPR:

In just a few months, Goodall a made a major discovery. Chimps could make and use tools — as she learned by watching a chimp she’d named David Greybeard. (Goodall has called him “my favorite chimpanzee of all time.”) He stripped leaves off a twig, then used it to fish termites out of a mound. Goodall later told NPR that her mentor, Louis Leakey, was impressed.

“He said, ‘Well, it’s always been considered that man is the only toolmaking animal. So we now have to redefine tool, redefine man, or include chimpanzees with humans,’ ” she recalled.

Lost Connections

Great post from Merianna about relational being and our real need to have connections that will help us imagine our way out of our modern spiritual crisis in the context of Hurricane Helene…

Lost Connection – by Merianna Harrelson:

Without thinking I asked, “Where you all right? How about your house? How about your neighborhood? Do you need anything?” The lost connection actually helped me search for connection with complete strangers. Suddenly, no one was irritated or frustrated waiting in line or waiting for a plug to charge what they needed. Instead we were all thankful to see each other.

A year later as I think about the way we as a community started to congregate in places that had power, I realized that this is what is missing. We have become so used to being connected all the time to news streams, events from around the world, and posts and comments that we have lost connection to the people we pass every day. We have forgotten that these connections are the connections that remind us that we are all God’s beloved children and we have all lived through something that has shaken us to our core.

Pakistan at the Epicenter of Climate Change

Worth your time to read…

As Floods Worsen, Pakistan Is the Epicenter of Climate Change – Yale E360:

“Monsoon storms are now forming in a warmer atmosphere that holds and dumps far more moisture in short bursts, causing flash floods and landslides,” says Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist at University of Reading. “As extreme events grow more frequent, we’re flying blind into disaster.”

Navigating Our Climate Crisis Without U.S. Leadership

Important piece here that gives voice to leaders from areas that aren’t usually covered by the mainstream press here in the USA when discussing climate issues and our ecological crisis in general… let those with ears to listen, hear…

Six World Leaders on Navigating Climate Change, Without the U.S. – The New York Times (Gift Article):

Debates around climate change often focus on the world’s largest economies and biggest emitters. But much of the hard work of figuring out how to adapt — both to a hotter planet and to a new geopolitical landscape — is happening in countries that have contributed relatively little to the problem yet are still navigating complex climate-related issues. Hoping to better understand how global warming and the changing world order are affecting some of these often-overlooked places, I spoke with six world leaders from different geographic regions. I heard some common themes: the ravages of extreme weather, the difficulties posed by the Trump administration’s retreat. But these conversations also illustrated the intensely varied predicaments facing world leaders right now.

Save UNCA’s Urban Forest

Breaks my heart and mind to see out-of-state developers pushing to cut even more forests out of Asheville’s downtown canopy (especially after Helene and the human and more-than-human losses). I hope this initiative linked here takes hold and works. Go spread the word if you’re interested in the great work of our ecological futures (rather than more corporate homogenized playing fields):

Save UNCA’s Urban Forest:

Approx. 40% of trees in Buncombe county were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Helene, per AVL Watchdog. It’s more important than ever to save the trees we have left

Fire Resilience 🔥

Fascinating and needed work… imagining something similar here in the Carolinas as we begin to grapple with seasonal fires in a land that once saw large populations of megafauna such as buffalo and mammoths (not forgetting that fires are a part of the solution, not the actual problem)…

Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife:

Some 30,000 years ago, Stone Age people decorated a cave, today known as Cueva de los Casares, in central Spain with pictures of mating humans (most famously), geometric shapes, and animals. The most popular carved animal is the wild horse.

Cueva de los Casares sports at least two dozen images of wild horses. Eventually, these Pleistocene-epoch horses vanished — likely slaughtered for food or domesticated. But some 10,000 years later, wild horses have again returned to central Spain — this time to help with out-of-control fires and bring economic opportunity to a struggling region.