Green Mission News – November 2025
Australian household energy bills are set to halve by 2050, leaving ‘policy room’ for the federal government to cut emissions in the electricity sector without hurting households.
https://grattan.edu.au/report/bills-down-emissions-down-a-practical-path-to-net-zero-electricity/
At 40, Farm Aid Is Still About Music. It’s Also a Movement.
Willie Nelson launched the music festival in 1985 as a fundraiser to save family farms. With corporate consolidation a continuing threat to farms, it’s now a platform for populist organizing, too.
https://civileats.com/2025/10/15/at-40-farm-aid-is-still-about-music-its-also-a-movement/
California Can Lead a Just Climate Transition
A new report from the UAW calls for a green industrial policy in the Golden State.
https://inequality.org/article/california-can-lead-a-just-climate-transition/
CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere jumped by a record amount in 2024
The global average concentration of CO2 surged by 3.5 parts per million to reach 423.9 ppm last year, fuelling worries that the planet’s ability to soak up excess carbon is weakening
Decline in phytoplankton suggests weakened planetary capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.
New research reveals that a key biological carbon pump is weakening, threatening ecosystems and the climate.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17102025/oceans-lose-luster-phytoplankton-decline/
Warming oceans probably fueling Hurricane Melissa’s rapid intensification
Climate scientists have long warned that warming oceans are making explosive storm development more common
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/27/hurricane-melissa-warming-oceans-climate-crisis
The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01919-1/abstract
3D Solar towers boost electricity production by around 50%
https://newatlas.com/energy/solar-towers-electricity/
8.5M tons of packaging entered California landfills in 2024: CalRecycle study
The study, mandated by SB 54, sheds light on how materials covered under the extended producer responsibility program might be diverted in the future.
https://www.packagingdive.com/news/california-packaging-landfills-covered-material-sb54-epr/801929/
Why countries struggle to quit fossil fuels, despite higher costs and 30 years of climate talks and treaties
As Planet Burns, US Banking Agencies Ditch Climate Risk Rules
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently warned that due to climate disasters, “there will be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage, there won’t be ATMs, banks won’t have branches.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bank-regulators-pull-climate-rules
Typhoon disaster in Western Alaska raises questions around the region’s future
Climate change forces combine to make the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta especially vulnerable, threatening a region that has sustained Indigenous people for millennia
Climate disasters in first half of 2025 costliest ever on record, research shows
LA wildfires and storms this year cost $101bn, new study by non-profit resurrecting work axed by Trump says
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/22/climate-disasters-2025-cost
What Are Microplastics — and How Do They Get Into the Food We Eat?
Findings show that shellfish, beer, salt, and even produce carry some of the highest concentrations of microplastics in the human diet. But there are ways to mitigate exposure.
https://www.foodandwine.com/what-are-microplastics-and-how-to-reduce-risk-11834862
Bill to ban plastic foodware advances.
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2025/10/26/hawaii-news/bill-to-ban-plastic-foodware-advances/
Bottle Underground + Remark Glass | Closed-Loop Glass
https://mainlineshift.com/blog/spotlight/bottle-underground-2/
Glass Half Full | Glass Recycling, Coastal Restoration
Glass Half Full is a New Orleans based glass recycling company servicing Louisiana, Mississippi and across the Gulf South. Glass Half Full recycles post-consumer glass waste into sand and gravel for coastal restoration and erosion protection, disaster relief, new glass products, and more.
How Did This State Become the Data Center Capital of the World?
From America Online to the rise of AI, Virginia has been good for an industry now transforming the economy and grid. Has the industry returned the favor?
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102025/virginia-data-center-capital-ai-boom/
Rare earth mining expands into Laos, threatening entire Mekong River
Acute Exposure to Microplastics Induced Changes in Behavior and Inflammation in Young and Old Mice
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/15/12308
Scientists Confirm Widespread Microplastics in Milk and Cheese
Researchers in Italy’s University of Padua detected plastic particles in nearly every dairy sample they tested, with the highest concentrations found in aged cheeses.
https://www.foodandwine.com/microplastics-milk-and-cheese-2025-study-11827170
Rice, two curries and dal: The Indian cafes where you can pay in rubbish
Renewables overtake coal as world’s biggest source of electricity
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2rz08en2po
Carbon tax to be increased to €71 per tonne of CO2
https://www.rte.ie/news/budget-2026/2025/1007/1537082-budget-2026-climate-environment/
Quannah ChasingHorse Says The Colorado River’s Survival Is About More Than Water
The new nature documentary “The American Southwest” spotlights what stands to be lost if we can’t learn how to live with nature instead of trying to tame it.
The 7 greenest cities in America right now
From clean energy to walkability, these U.S. cities stand out for policies and infrastructure that make eco-friendly living easy
https://qz.com/greenest-cities-usa-2025-california
Five projects using community-led regenerative agriculture to fight climate change
Branching Out: Veterans Grow Their Fruit Tree Knowledge
https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2025/07/branching-out-veterans-grow-their-fruit-tree-knowledge/
Regenerative agriculture practices and multidimensional poverty in eastern rural India
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-18461-5
Empowering Rural Cambodian Women Through Sustainable Victory Gardens
https://www.oneearth.org/projects/improving-rural-cambodian-lives-through-organic-gardening/
Regenerating the Desert in Arizona: From Wasteland to Farmland (video, 42 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9oT-iLBOl4
New PepsiCo and Unilever Initiative Helps Farmers Adopt Regenerative Ag Practices
Why Regenerative Organic? It’s Farming the Way Nature Intended
Growing food and fiber with industrial techniques has devastated our climate. That’s why we’re supporting farms working toward the highest organic standard, Regenerative Organic Certified. These practices reduce greenhouse gas emissions and could help trap more carbon than conventional agriculture.
https://www.patagonia.com/regenerative-organic/
A new study has traced microplastic contamination in commercial fish, factors that increase the uptake of of these toxic particles, and the resulting risks for fish and human health along the Goan coast
Microplastics threaten Goa’s estuarine fisheries, human consumers
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/microplastics-threaten-goas-estuarine-fisheries-human-consumers/article70162157.ece
As EPA Stalls, States Are Left to Handle Solar Panel Waste
A federal plan to manage the coming “solar waste tsunami” of retired panels has missed its start date, leaving states and the solar industry to patch together their own rules for retiring the panels. Fifteen states have no rules at all.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18102025/epa-solar-panel-waste/
Sorry, you can’t trick your gut with short-term healthy eating
https://newatlas.com/diet-nutrition/microbiome-healthy-diet/
This 16-Year-Old Invented an A.I. Tool to Help Cool Down the World’s Hottest Cities
Isaque Carvalho Borges experiences the urban heat island effect in his home of Palmas, Brazil, and he wants to do something about it
Everyone can be an environmentalist.
Together, we will create a climate movement made in the image of all of us.
blackgirlenvironmentalist.org
Trump’s hatred for renewables means the US is falling behind the rest of the world
As well as embracing ‘beautiful coal’, the president has set about obliterating clean energy projects
Trump’s Polluter Playground: Fossil Fuel Insiders & Ideologues Prop Up Dirty Energy & Derail Clean Power
https://www.citizen.org/article/trumps-polluter-playground/