John Vaillant

Fyi:

A guide to the 4 minerals shaping the world's energy future To address climate change, we're going to need a whole lot of metal.

A guide to the 4 minerals shaping the world’s energy future.
To address climate change, we're going to need a whole lot of metal.

grist.org/energy/criti...

#Mining #Mines #Climate #Lithium #CleanEnergy #Renewables #EV #Cars

Got a good lawyer?

Launching today with partners: a campaign to protect sharks & rays.

At #CITESCoP20, govts will decide whether to grant whale sharks, oceanic whitetips, and manta & devil rays full Appendix I protections — a once-in-a-generation chance.

🌏 Sign the petition: only.one/act/cites-2025

Recording a special Jane Goodall episode for the What If We Get It Right? podcast. Coming your way tomorrow — subscribe wherever you get your pods 🎙️ www.getitright.earth/podcast

Imperial's parent company, ExxonMobil, announced its own layoffs the *next* day.

Here's ConocoPhillips, a Houston-based company, announcing layoffs of 20 to 25 per cent earlier this month.

Is this also Ottawa's fault?

A terrific reality check. Thanks!

The ‘de-manning’ of Canada’s oilsands sector Canada's oil and gas industry has been getting less labour-intensive for more than a decade now. When will our elected officials finally acknowledge that — and its obvious implications for the future?

I could keep throwing up receipts here, but I think you get the point: this is a global phenomenon, not a product of Ottawa's supposed antipathy towards Alberta's oil and gas industry.

It's as I wrote, and said, here:

www.nationalobserver.com/2025/08/28/o...

How Mark Carney is complicating Canada’s climate progress | The Narwhal From cancelling the carbon tax to pausing the EV mandate, Mark Carney’s government is making sweeping changes to Canada’s environmental rules

From cancelling the carbon tax to pausing the electric vehicle mandate, Prime Minister Mark Carney is making sweeping changes to Canada’s environmental rules — and complicating Canada’s progress on climate change. thenarwhal.ca/mark-carney-...

Pete Hegseth’s Crypto History Does the defense secretary have unclaimed earnings from a firm he formerly advised?

For The Nation, I wrote about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's time on an advisory board for an Israeli crypto company and the cash payout he might be eligible for this week.
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Comment: LNG start-up flaring is a public-health blind spot — and B.C. is ignoring it LNG terminals burn nearly three times more gas during their first two years of operation than afterward.

Comment: LNG start-up flaring is a public-health blind spot — and B.C. is ignoring it.
LNG terminals burn nearly three times more gas during their first two years of operation than afterward.

Recommended read by Drs @timtakaro.bsky.social and Laura Minet:
www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comm...

"some of the most effective undermining of environmental science has come from business leaders who say that their company is working alongside scientists [..] to solve climate problems
...
PR consultants will create [..] sponsorships for their clients that make them look good"

👀 at you, Scitech👀

Taking stock of the Roberts court at 20—and the shadowy forces that built it "Roberts will go down in history as the most destructive chief justice."

“Roberts will go down in history as the most destructive chief justice.”

YouTube video by Trevor Noah Ezra Klein: America At Its Breaking Point

This kind of humane, 'karmatic'* generosity really moves me, too:
"It's still a kind of magic, as a journalist, that you can call people that know -everything- about something, and they will take an hour out of their day to explain it to you." - Ezra K.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOHP...
* Treme: S1,E1

Time once again to remember how Trevor Noah, early in his stint as host of The Daily Show back in 2016, told us Trump would be America’s African dictator. Eerily, he even started off by lampooning Trump’s penchant for marble, gold, and escalators!

Company bids less than a penny per ton in biggest US coal sale in over a decade A Navajo tribe-owned company has bid $186,000 to lease 167 million tons of coal on federal lands in southeastern Montana.

The offer "equates to one-tenth of a penny per ton, underscoring coal’s diminished value even as President Donald Trump pushes to mine and burn more of the heavily polluting fuel.

Federal officials did not immediately say if they would accept the offer. It was the only bid received."

🚨At the Kennedy Center, Stuttgart Ballet ticket sales languish at 4–19%, subscriptions have plunged 50%, and a $1.6M shortfall warns America’s cultural heart is being hollowed out by politics.
open.substack.com/pub/theintel...

The @metoffice.gov.uk use weather station observations to reconstruct changes in UK average temperature since 1884.

@copernicusecmwf.bsky.social produce the ERA5 reanalysis which reconstructs global weather every hour back to 1950 using a weather forecast model.

Their estimates agree. Just sayin'.

California is the manufacturing capital of America, period.

We create more jobs, produce more goods, and drive more innovation than anywhere else in the country — because what gets built in California shapes the future and powers the U.S. economy.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

― George Orwell, 1984

This is 21st Century Fire:
Maine is the Nova Scotia of the US: historically, foggy, soggy
#wildfire

Reuters: The Kirishi Oil Refinery, one of Russia’s largest, has shut down its main crude processing unit (AVT-6) after a Ukrainian drone strike and fire on October 4. Repairs may take about a month. The shutdown will further cut fuel output in Russia, which is already facing a severe fuel shortage.

The U.S. Is Forfeiting the Clean-Energy Race to China As President Trump doubles down on fossil fuels, the U.S. and China offer competing visions for the future of energy.

The WSJ speaking: "America has given up its effort to challenge China in the renewable-energy industries that increasingly power the global economy."

Gabbard Ends Intelligence Report on Future Threats to U.S.

Why offer a report on future threats when you don't care about the future?

#rewilding

Kristi Noem Has Stark Warning For People Going To The Super Bowl The homeland security secretary's warning came as she vowed ICE would be "all over" the massive NFL event.

What she really means is that the Super Bowl is for Whites Only...

www.huffpost.com/entry/kristi...

Golden Spruce Trees: How Bacteria Guide the Formation of Gold Nanoparticles A groundbreaking study has revealed an unprecedented connection between bacteria residing in the needles of Norway spruce trees and the formation of gold nanoparticles. This discovery is set to

Meanwhile, in cutting edge golden spruce research . . .
bioengineer.org/golden-spruc... @forestry.ubc.ca @ubcbotany.bsky.social @loridanielsubc.bsky.social @drsuzannesimard.bsky.social