Green Mission News – July 2025
Local, organic, and bipartisan: How Vermont is challenging Big Food
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2025/0608/vermont-local-organic-bipartisan-big-food
Recycling Food Waste Could Dramatically Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Study
https://www.ecowatch.com/food-waste-recycling-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html
What is ‘precipitation whiplash’? The new accelerating, climate change weather danger
Rapid changes from wet to dry weather can create severe natural disasters. And these precipitation whiplash events are becoming more common.
Urban Forest Plan
This plan is a manual for how the Boston community can work together to prioritize, preserve, and grow our tree canopy.
https://www.boston.gov/departments/parks-and-recreation/urban-forest-plan
A National Soil-Judging Contest Prepares College Students to Steward the Land
With soil knives, scorecards, and endless enthusiasm, college students from across the country compete for the Stanley Cup of soils—and learn how to protect an increasingly threatened resource.
ICE Raids on US Farms Leaves Crops Rotting
https://www.newsweek.com/ice-immigration-raids-farms-crops-rotting-2092749
Top tools to protect rainforests | Against All Odds
https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/06/top-tools-to-protect-rainforests-against-all-odds/
Massive Fields Where Native American Farmers Grew Corn, Beans and Squash 1,000 Years Ago Discovered in Michigan
The ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin built earthen mounds to grow crops. The site could be the largest preserved archaeological field system in the eastern United States
Alaska just hit a climate milestone — its first-ever heat advisory
The heat bearing down on central Alaska “could feel like 110” in a state where the sun can shine all day.
https://grist.org/extreme-heat/alaska-just-hit-a-climate-milestone-its-first-heat-advisory/
Americans continue to want solar energy.
US solar manufacturers lag skyrocketing market demand
https://theconversation.com/us-solar-manufacturers-lag-skyrocketing-market-demand-256944
‘The Science Is What Sets Us Apart’: How the Rodale Institute Has Spent 77 Years Innovating Regenerative Organic Agriculture
https://www.ecowatch.com/rodale-institute-organic-agriculture-ecowatch.html
Inside a plan to use AI to amplify doubts about the dangers of pollutants
Risk analyst Tony Cox’s work has been backed by the chemical lobby, and some health experts are alarmed
Climate movement strikes back with first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit against EPA
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-movement-first-of-its-kind-class-action-lawsuit-against-epa/
How electric scooters are driving China’s salt battery push
The mystery rise of lung cancer in non-smokers
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250605-the-mystery-rise-of-lung-cancer-in-non-smokers
Where 3 key waste and recycling bills stand in California
Bills managing marine flares, establishing a tax exemption for certain Chiquita Canyon compensation payments and expanding composting regulations for certain farmers are still in play.
The Secrets Being Revealed by Ocean Garbage Patches
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an enormous agglomeration of plastic waste floating in the world’s largest ocean, but it’s not the only one. Scientists are trying to work out how to clean them up.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220930-the-ocean-gyres-creating-huge-new-plastic-patches
Plastic bag bans and fees curb US shoreline litter, study suggests
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdeznkxyek0o
Oil lobbyist claims that New York anti-plastic bill would harm people of color called ‘misleading’
Bill that aims to reduce plastic packaging by 30% in 12 years faces staunch opposition by some business interests
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/new-york-plastic-bill-oil-chemical-lobby
Renewables Join Fossil Fuels in Supplying Record Energy Demand: Report
https://www.ecowatch.com/global-energy-demand-record-2024.html
Conservation Work on Farms and Ranches Could Take a Hit as USDA Cuts Staff
Close to 2,400 employees of the Natural Resources Conservation Service have accepted an offer to resign, leaving fewer hands to protect rural landscapes.
Major US climate website likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired
Exclusive: Climate.gov, which supports public education on climate science, will soon no longer publish new content
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/11/climate-website-shut-down-noaa
‘How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ positions US energy to be more costly for consumers and the climate
Trump’s pollution rollback rewards wealthy plant owners — at the expense of Americans’ health
Proposals this week to weaken EPA restrictions will help tiny group of owners while ‘the American people will breathe dirtier air’.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/12/trump-epa-pollution-rules
New Maps Show Best Places for Global Reforestation: Study
https://www.ecowatch.com/global-reforestation-best-places-maps.html
This Alaska Native fishing village was trying to power their town. Then came Trump’s funding cuts.
Port Heiden is facing an energy crisis. A $300,000 grant from the EPA would have helped the traditional Alutiiq community swap costly, polluting diesel for cheaper, clean power.
After controversy, Plant-for-the-Planet focuses on the trees
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/
Race to mine metals for EV batteries threatens marine paradise
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0k36v50zvro
Marine massacre in Australia’s Coorong’s ecosystem sparks rage
https://naturenews.africa/marine-massacre-in-australias-coorongs-ecosystem-sparks-rage/
Carcinogenic effects of long-term exposure from prenatal life to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides in Sprague–Dawley rats
https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-025-01187-2
California delays compostable packaging crackdown before USDA vote
CalRecycle said in granting an extension that the “fluid status of stakeholders’ legal obligations would present a significant risk of market disruption and exacerbate consumers’ confusion.”
How much do consumers really care about sustainable packaging?
From the importance of recyclability to substrate perceptions, consulting firm McKinsey & Co. offers five takeaways about packaging sustainability, based on a recent consumer survey.
‘Ticking Time Bomb’ of Ocean Acidification Has Already Crossed Planetary Boundary, Threatening Marine Ecosystems: Study
https://www.ecowatch.com/ocean-acidification-planetary-boundary.html
Plastic bag bans and fees curb US shoreline litter, study suggests
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdeznkxyek0o