Green Mission News – September 2026
‘We like breaking the rules’: the radical farm that yields results
El Niño puts Earth in ‘uncharted territory.’ Here’s what could happen
Experts face a big problem with no clear answer: What will a historically strong El Niño look like stacked on top of Earth’s unprecedented warming?
LIFE projects showcase how nature-based solutions strengthen climate resilience
More than 450 participants gathered in Rennes to share practical solutions for scaling up nature-based solutions to help communities adapt to climate change.
Plastics contamination an ‘overlooked’ concern in food waste schemes, experts say
Researchers find microplastics can persist in compost, leaching into agricultural soils
In Amazon rivers, fish breathe and ingest plastics
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-amazon-rivers-fish-breathe-and-ingest-plastics/
Human “biology was never intended to handle” ultraprocessed foods, former FDA head David Kessler warns
Study Reveals Hidden Health Risks of Cheap Foods
https://foodtank.com/news/2026/08/study-reveals-hidden-health-risks-of-cheap-foods/
Puerto Rico working with federal agencies on water crisis, governor says
Europe’s Summer of Nightmares
Punishing heat and wildfires have cost billions and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/10/europe-heat-wildfires-climate-economy-energy/
Torrential rain and floods pound Ohio. See the storm’s aftermath
California bans paraquat, highly toxic herbicide outlawed in more than 70 countries
State is US’s largest user of pesticide that is virtually proven to cause Parkinson’s disease
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/california-paraquat-ban-pesticide
Jury rules against Orkin for spraying pesticide on New Orleans organic farm
An Orkin man went to the wrong address, fogged Fat River Farm in the Lower 9th Ward with pesticides, ruined the farm’s ability to market its produce as organic, and upset the garden’s natural balance of insects.
The world’s largest electric plane takes flight
The 25,000-pound aircraft flew for 27 minutes.
https://www.popsci.com/technology/worlds-largest-electric-plane/
Wildfires Make Sounds We Can’t Hear—and That Could Help Us Extinguish Them Faster
Detecting new wildfires is our first line of defense against their disastrous spread, and some researchers wonder if infrasound could aid in that observation mission.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a73429767/infrasound-fire/
Hurricane forecasters fear more threats brewing as El Niño rages
National Hurricane Center forecasters watch two new potential tropical systems in the Pacific as Hawaii works to recover from Lala’s historic rain.
Longtime Exxon CEO Lee Raymond’s legacy of climate denial and misinformation lives on – a psychologist offers ways to counter it
The world inches toward catastrophic climate events: ‘Bigger shocks are on the way’
https://apnews.com/article/climate-change-disaster-big-one-threat-5b062254250a759483c94376d32ae478
How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – a visual guide
US Geological Survey says massive glacial collapse caused catastrophic flash floods in the Himalayan border region of Nepal and Tibet
The Reality of the Climate Emergency Is Becoming Impossible to Ignore
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that ultimately that political world is a subset of the physical one, simply because that’s how things work. And we’re now reaching, I think, the point where that physical system is running out of margin.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/climate-reality
‘I wanted to find the slowest fashion imaginable’: the woman growing her own dress
Looking for an alternative to fast fashion, Eve Ogden Schaub decided to create a garment from homegrown flax
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026/aug/29/slow-fashion-why-one-woman-growing-her-own-dress
In rural communities, fears amplified by ‘AI slop’ and social media hamper solar boom
Solar panel misinformation, spread by bots and by neighbors, derailed a project in Cajun Country that promised millions in local tax revenue. The same methods are being employed nationwide.
AI-driven productivity gains enable more CO₂ emissions than they avoid in a global energy–economy model
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44168-026-00411-0
AI Could Help Fossil Fuel Companies Create More Emissions
New research finds that by making the fossil fuel industry more productive, AI could help increase carbon emissions by up to nearly 5 percent—vastly outpacing the impact of data centers.
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-could-help-fossil-fuel-companies-create-more-emissions/
Bob’s Red Mill meets 92% waste diversion rate
https://resource-recycling.com/recycling/2026/08/26/bobs-red-mill-meets-92-waste-diversion-rate/
Waste board targets buildup of Cedar Rapids data center debris
QTS, Google data center sites contribute 20,000 tons of waste in FY26
British Columbia is logging its last old growth. Protesters are sleeping in the road to stop it.
How rescued orangutans are rebuilding a new wild population in Sumatra
Why are ultra-processed food firms panicking and suing? Because they know time is running out
As the harm caused by their products becomes more evident, manufacturers are resorting to denial and lawsuits to keep regulation at bay
Trump administration to pay German firm $1.2bn to halt US wind projects
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e1vg0gjl5o
Trump is losing his war on wind power
A court rules that a hold on all wind projects clearly violates the law.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/08/trump-is-losing-his-war-on-wind-power/
‘Unprecedented, dangerous territory’: US north-west reckons with a summer of historic wildfires
Extreme conditions in Washington and Oregon have fueled fast-moving fires, leaving the region draped in toxic plumes – and the danger isn’t over
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/10/us-wildfires-pacific-north-west
Amazon’s new Texas AI data center will include massive amounts of air pollution
Of course it does.
https://mashable.com/tech/amazon-texas-data-center-pollution
Agroecology Pays Off: Report Highlights Major Gains for Burkina Faso Farmers
‘This is what’s working’: Indigenous leaders on environment solutions in their communities
Examining the influence of ecological literacy, social media, and community involvement on teachers’ sustainable teaching practices
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43621-026-02816-7
To Quell Ecological Grief, Expand Ecological Literacy
https://www.asla.org/news-insights/dirt/to-quell-ecological-grief-expand-ecological-literacy
Typhoon Dolphin: China deploys AI weather models as extreme climate threats intensify
China is increasingly deploying AI weather models alongside traditional systems to track intensifying typhoons and prepare for extreme weather
Here’s where fires are burning across Washington, Oregon and BC
Destroyed crops, riverbed cyclists and a ‘Rock of Starvation’: how drought has devastated the Danube
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/16/danube-drought-destroyed-crops-rock-of-starvation-climate-crisis
Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from oil and gas assets since joining supreme court, analysis shows
Critics argue US high court justice should recuse himself from upcoming fossil fuel firms’ climate accountability case
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/11/samuel-alito-oil-gas-assets-supreme-court-analysis
Assessing the ecological resilience of Ebola virus in Africa and potential influencing factors based on a synthesized model.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e953/e03062cc703ba07458d2b65ac30416e95572.pdf
Ebola preparedness must start with ecosystems and before humans show symptoms
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02070-x
Rare ‘super El Niño’ spikes ocean temps to new record
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2026/0810/Rare-super-El-Nino-spikes-ocean-temps-to-new-record
Lake Powell Arizona crisis demands action
Lake Powell is rapidly approaching dead pool status, threatening electricity generation, as an Arizona visitor urges people to conserve water and energy.
Here’s why tons of iron are constantly removed from streams across Pennsylvania.
https://www.goerie.com/story/sports/outdoors/2026/08/10/how-pennsylvania-cleans-toxic-mine-drainage-in-rivers-for-fishing-drinking-water/91246058007/
San Diego’s Chollas Creek restoration project now underway in City Heights
The project will replace a 50-foot-wide concrete channel and restore 1,350 linear feet of the creek. It is planned to be completed by next spring.
Louisiana communities are left in the dark on toxic air — and industry helped keep it that way
The state’s air monitors are often miles from its biggest polluters and residents have little way of knowing what they’re breathing. That’s no accident.