Cathy Cowan Becker

I was shocked to find a major environmental nonprofit using Citibank for its branded credit card. Citibank is one of the world's major financers of fossil fuels. That organization and others can find better credit cards here.

Best thing I've read all week. Really important connections made here.

IMAX movie tells Ohio's environmental comeback story from burning river to top-ranked state parks When you think IMAX, chances are your mind goes to those immersive documentaries that take you inside volcanoes, deep under oceans or to distant planets.

New IMAX film promotes the beautiful Ohio state parks we all love. @jcarrsmyth.bsky.social @apnews.com: bit.ly/4actzsl

All the more reason to protect them. Story doesn't mention Ohio simultaneously fracks its state parks and public lands for natural gas.

Why?

@ccbecker271.bsky.social

Trump’s Pick to Lead the Federal Reserve Could Steer Bank Away From Climate Change - Inside Climate News The fight over control of the Federal Reserve has revolved around interest rates and inflation, but President Donald Trump’s choice to be the bank’s next chair could sway how the agency assesses clima...

Trump pick for Federal Reserve ignores climate risks.

Yet banks face financial risks from extreme weather-related bankruptcies and insurance fleeing markets. Nick Kusnetz @insideclimatenews.org: bit.ly/3ZH2UOj

@crainscleveland.bsky.social @alexcoolidge.bsky.social @ccbecker271.bsky.social

What happens to Great Lakes water if the 70-year-old Enbridge Line 5 natural gas pipeline under Straits of Mackinac fails?

@drpeggy70.bsky.social @ssteingraber1.bsky.social @ccbecker271.bsky.social @twrader.bsky.social @kentksmith.bsky.social @davidpepperoh.bsky.social @amyactonoh.bsky.social

It's so heartening to see state leaders with guts ... thank you to Dana Nessel of Michigan. Really great work. 👏👏👏

This quote in this article is utterly unhinged. I cannot imagine behaving publicly in this manner.

Thank you Shelby! This is the future we need.

API "consultant" claims injection wells are the proper place to store toxic, radioactive gas and oil waste brine from fracking.

But concrete fails over time. Brine is migrating into neighboring oil wells. Does Pennsylvania geology stop at the Ohio border?

Who finances API?

@energyandpolicy.org

Unhinged.

Michi Trota of @greenamerica.org writes.

Amid ICE raids, some Home Depot investors want to know how law enforcement uses its surveillance data Home Depot locations have become hotbeds for ICE arrests.

Is Home Depot facilitating ICE raids? Investors want to know

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Nobody Wants This. Non rom com version.

You're paying for this.

Trump's Big Ugly Bill gave BILLIONS to ICE and giant corporations—using money meant to lower your health care costs.

Instead of helping your mom get cancer treatment, your tax dollars are being used to terrorize communities.

The Companies Behind ICE Sludge built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.

New: We built an interactive map of every ICE contractor working with the Trump administration.

readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...

Wilmington planning commission tables Amazon Data Center proposal after company reps fail to answer questions Dozens of residents attended Tuesday's meeting to voice concerns about the proposed facility, which would be located off U.S. 68 near the Timber Glen subdivision if approved.

Sometimes you learn more by asking the right questions than by getting immediate answers. Jay Shakur @wcpo9news.bsky.social: bit.ly/4qm7i1c

Kudos to Wilmington residents asking those questions.

@wvxu.org @ccbecker271.bsky.social @drpeggy70.bsky.social @healthylakes.org

O-H ICE-OUT!

This is the first time in 3 years this commission is allowing citizens to speak at one of their meetings. If you are in Ohio and can make it on 1/12 at 1pm, please sign up at the link in the article. If you can't make it, you can submit a written comment. These are our parks and public lands!

Tell Ohio EPA: No general wastewater permits for Ohio data centers The Ohio EPA's draft proposal would fast-track wastewater permits for data centers without reviews needed to ensure public health and safety.

Happy New Year. Start it off right. Tell Ohio EPA to do its job and protect Ohio water quality.

Comment by Jan. 16 on data centers allowed to discharge wastewater into our rivers and streams, lowering our water quality. bit.ly/3KLuDK8

@ccbecker271.bsky.social @davidpepperoh.bsky.social

“The Blue Road to Trump Hell”: Norm Solomon on “How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy” A new report from the grassroots organization RootsAction aims to do what a promised “autopsy” from the Democratic National Committee ultimately did not: publicly reckon with the failures of the Democ...

A new report from the grassroots organization RootsAction aims to do what a promised "autopsy" from the Democratic National Committee ultimately did not: publicly reckon with the failures of the Democrats' 2024 presidential campaign.

@alliancegreatlakes.bsky.social: Great Lakes region is unprepared to manage overlapping, competing demands leading to more water conflict-- from industries like data centers and semiconductor chip manufacturing. bit.ly/4sClfcX

@cleveland.com @toledoblade.bsky.social @ccbecker271.bsky.social

It's 6:28 p.m. EST.

I have two fans on in my living room.

No heat on.
Wearing capris and a summer hoodie.

In Northern Indiana.

With a tornado warning in effect til 9 tonight, and a severe thunderstorm warning in effect til then too.

Only to flash freeze by morning.

#SheShed

Stephen Miller: Someone should write an alternate historical novel where Americans are the first to master the automobile, the first in flight, the first to harness the atom, the first to land on the moon — but just keep going and never open our borders to the entire third world for sixty years.

Immigrant-hating Stephen Miller talks about Americans being "first to harness the atom." But the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was conducted by a team led by Italian immigrant Enrico Fermi, who didn't become a U.S. citizen until a year and a half later.

Beautiful music ahead ...

This thread perfectly explains why AI has little value for qualitative research.

Yes, large language models can find patterns in qualitative data. But, they're trained on what we already know. So, they won't find anything surprising. And, surprise is qualitative research's primary value-add.

Black and white studio photo of a longhaired white cat sitting up on a small table draped with brocade fabric. The cat has a very large ruffly bow made of dark fabric attached to the right side of its collar.

Very fancy potato bear postcard from my collection, unsent and date unknown.

1/4) China is already generating, in 2025, from wind-water-solar (WWS) alone, 54% of all end-use energy the U.S. needs for all purposes (electricity, transport, buildings, industry) & 61% of the end-use energy India needs for all purposes in 2050.

Paper
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

This is so sad and so unnecessary. They were trying to plug an orphan well. There are somewhere between 20,000 and 60,000 orphan wells in Ohio, a product of the oil and gas industry.

Solar panels don't explode.

The Lobbying Behemoth Vying to Pollute the Air and Scam the Public | Revolving Door Project The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has spent millions opposing emissions regulations, consumer protections, and more.

The Trump administration has wasted no time gutting fuel efficiency standards and consumer protections in the auto industry, thanks to strong lobbying support from the National Automobile Dealers Association.