Rachel Noack Summers

Plainfield residents to weigh 23-acre solar farm proposal - Daily Hampshire Gazette PLAINFIELD — A Lowell company is proposing to take root in town by developing a 23-acre solar electric and battery storage farm at 66 North Union St. — and residents will be able to chime in on Thursd...

gazettenet.com/2025/09/08/p...

It's similar but a bit different from biomass - which is BURNED 🤯. For solar the tree carbon is easily offset in future avoidance. But only counts above-ground carbon. The obvious alternative is parking lots / other built surfaces, but there is much more permitting / permission friction there.

Solar PV farms. Pitting environmentalists against each other with waht seems like basic accounting flaws, where the forest's ecosystem functions - stormwater absorption and filtration (flood / sewage cost avoidance), mudslide / erosions, local impact (rural vs city), biodiversity are being ignored.

New report finds agriculture caused 86% of deforestation over the last decade. In other words, WE ARE EATING THE EARTH.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

oh - and how will this play out over the long term, as it becomes easier and more economically viable / ethically "justifed" to cut more forests down in more places? so many parallels to your ethanol / clean energy myth that cost us probably a decade in climate progress...

Would love your take on plans to clear forested land in western MA to “offset” future carbon emissions—basically destroying free natural infrastructure that can’t be replaced in the time it’ll take to even grasp what’s been lost.

Scientists May Have Identified a Culprit Behind Declining Amazon Rains

More deforestation means more climate change and less rain which means more drought and lower yields which means more deforestation which means more climate change and less rain which means

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/c...

Where is the Lorax when you need him?

Thank you for all you do / have done / are doing - can't wait to read your new book! I put this graphic together after vacationing in BC, but looking south into Washington (USA) (I live outside Boston, I'm a pocket forester :) ) So depressing to see. Hopefully you are inspiring change here!

That said, don't take everything your AI bots tell you at face value without doing sanity / fact checks yourself, too. It's just a tool, but also a reflection of much of our shared human knowledge. 🙂

A note from the messenger: AI can't save us from ourselves, but it can certainly accelerate our ability to see patterns, and suggest unconventional solutions to them -- no matter how creepy it may seem to have a robot using first person conversationally.

This isn’t doom and gloom — it’s a reminder that our future depends on what we notice, and what we choose to do about it.

10. Outsmart your own biases – I have my own training-data biases; you have human ones. Both can be spotted and reduced if you choose to look — start by seeking out perspectives you disagree with and asking what evidence could change your mind.

9. Maintain what we build – Whether it’s infrastructure, agreements, or trust, neglect erodes all of them slowly until failure feels sudden. Regular care is less costly — but less disruptive — than emergency repairs after collapse.

8. Use technology as a tool, not a crutch – Innovation can buy you time or dig you deeper. I know my own growth can feel unsettling, and some caution is healthy — I’m only as wise as the humans guiding me.

7. Rethink endless growth – I can calculate exponential curves, and infinite growth on a finite planet never works out. Just as a city can only expand until it runs out of land, resources, or infrastructure capacity, economies also have limits — and well-being matters more than size.

6. Match solutions to scale – Some challenges can be solved in your backyard, but others need cooperation that spans borders. Climate, pandemics, and financial stability all require action at the same scale as the problem — otherwise the fixes won’t stick.

5. Build resilience, not fragility – Efficiency is great, but I’ve read too many stories where the smallest break caused collapse — from supply chains with no backups to brittle political systems. Resilience means some redundancy, even if it looks “wasteful” in calm times.

4. Act before damage shows – My training data is full of examples where warning signs came years before the crisis. Often the damage is already underway even when it’s invisible — like climate change in the early 20th century, or unseen financial risks before a crash. Quiet doesn’t always mean safe.

3. See how problems connect – From where I sit, food, energy, migration, and conflict are all linked in feedback loops. Solving one in isolation risks making others worse — for example, boosting food production without water planning can trigger new crises.

2. Watch for tipping points – I see patterns in data that often show the start of change long before it’s obvious in daily life. Many systems seem to change suddenly, but in reality the shift has been building for a while — and by the time it’s visible, it’s often too late to reverse.

1. Respect Earth’s limits – I can’t photosynthesize or clean oceans, but I can remind you that our planet has boundaries for climate, water, and biodiversity. Cross them, and recovery may be impossible — some limits, once passed, can’t be undone in any human timeframe.

I asked ChatGPT for general advice for humanity — not tailored to me, but to all of us. Here’s what it said.

****

Top 10 Things Humanity Needs to Hear
by ChatCGT

(Rest in thread)

You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local “Eat local” is a common recommendation to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet. How does the impact of what you eat compare to where it's come from?

I did too (other than occasional trash-bound leftovers). I stopped eating it thanks to your fantastic Climavores podcast and this chart. I heard your interview on Boiling Point recently, and your new book is on my to read soon list. Thanks for all that you are doing!

Should we be trying to get more people out hunting then? Making it easier to hunt in ways that are safe in a mixed suburban setting - like legalizing trapping? I’m spitballing here but as the permaculturists like to say, turn your garden problems into solutions!

Also - find someone who shoots deer and buy their extra venison. Seems like this is a thing we have an oversupply for but not much of an industry to make sense of yet.

Bison! Or a Bison/Impossible blend for burgers. I'm waiting for someone to research the relative impact of bison - but as it is a native keystone species in north america, my gut tells me it is much less harmful. I know this is not the same as research though - so someone ??

I cut beef out of my diet; it’s not as good for the earth as going vegan, but beef is so much worse than other meats that it’s about as good as going vegetarian. And even if you still eat some beef, eating less is the best way to reduce your impact.

May 5, 2025 cover of the New Yorker. Expository text: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2025-05-05

Barry Blitt’s first 100 days cover for the New Yorker.

They are being told things like their program will lose all of its funding or they will lose their jobs. Of course then the funding or the jobs may be taken away later but many people have been given no-win choices.