Month: August 2025

Birds & Bees Urban Farm Harvest Party

Posted on by

THE COOLED AND THE COOKED. Jeff Goodell writes about the two camps Americans split into during hotter and hotter summers.

The cooled spend most of their days in air-conditioning, while the cooked either don’t have the luxury of AC or work as delivery drivers, farm workers, roofers, and road crews, to name a few of the toughest hot-weather jobs.

Some of these jobs come with scant legal protection. Migrant workers, for example, even those here legally, are afforded little protection in high heat. In fact, farmworkers are up to 35 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than workers in other industries.

To quote Goodell: “It is symptomatic of the larger injustice of the climate crisis, which is that the people who have done the least to cause it are the ones who will suffer the most from its impacts.”

ZUCK AIN’T A GREAT NEIGHBOR. Speaking of those contributing most to climate chaos, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has purchased a cluster of 11 homes in Palo Alto, California. His neighbors refer to the place as a “compound,” and find the construction noise almost unbearable. Some neighbors say they feel they’re under an occupation. Continue Reading →

America’s nuclear test victims

Posted on by

Sadly, here’s something on which nearly all of us can agree: Our government lies.

One of the most egregious lies came into renewed focus last month when the Republican Congress did something I support., approving compensation for Idahoans poisoned by above-ground nuclear tests detonated in Nevada between 1951 and 1962.

Americans have been lied to by our federal government so often it’s easy to understand why people don’t trust politicians. The lie I want to talk about today (and during the first segment of this week’s radio show and podcast) happened during and after America’s first nuclear test, called Trinity, denoted on July 16, 1945, in central New Mexico. Continue Reading →

A deep dive into the genocide in Gaza, with Maria Reveiz

Posted on by

If Democrats running for Congress hope to win in 2026, they MUST take a strong stand against Israel’s attempted genocide.

Here’s a bit of our dialogue:

MARIA: I have so much rage inside of me. I’m less angry at the Republican Party because I never expected anything from them. In fact, I’m slightly optimistic with what I hear from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

[After Greene called Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee attacked her. Greene’s response, again to her credit, was to say, “AIPAC needs to register as a foreign lobbyist because they’re breaking US laws by donating to members of Congress and taking them on a fully funded trip to Israel.”]

ME: Are there any Democrats in Congress who’ve called what’s happening in Gaza a genocide?

MARIA: Only Rep. Rashida Tlaib. I feel so personally betrayed by the Democratic Party. You saw how active I was. I went to every presidential candidate and talked about Gaza. I hosted Democratic candidates at my venue, and even let them have functions for free. Continue Reading →

The journey of one thread of plastic from your washing machine to your dinner

Posted on by

The Guardian is one of the few mainstream news sources I almost always appreciate. I was particularly impressed by The Guardian’s recent account of how a thread of microplastic finds its way from your washing machine to your dinner. The story is clever, informative, and deeply disturbing. Read the full story here, and/or check out these key quotes from the story:

The story starts with a single thread of polyester, dislodged from the weave of a cheap, pink acrylic jumper [i.e., sweater] as it spins around a washing machine. This load of washing will shed hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic fragments and threads.

Along with billions of other microscopic, synthetic fibres, our thread travels through household wastewater pipes. Often, it ends up as sewage sludge, being spread on a farmer’s field to help crops grow.

Spread on the fields as water or sludge, our tiny fibre weaves its way into the fabric of soil ecosystems. A worm living under a wheat field burrows its way through the soil, mistaking the thread for a bit of old leaf or root. Continue Reading →