So, where should we start?

Check out this May 4, 2026 cartoon from Rhymes with Orange.

THIS WEEK: Global Earth Repair Convergence May 7-11 in Port Townsend, Washington and online. More than 120 soil scientists, Indigenous elders, restoration ecologists, permaculture designers, policy advocates, mycologists, agro-foresters, filmmakers, economists and farmers lay out how to regenerate degraded land, how fungi can clean polluted waterways, how to rethink your backyard. On Friday, May 8^th, I will present MAPPING OUR TECHNOSPHERE: the four pillars that make online activity possible: the power grid, manufacturing, access networks and data centers. I’ll propose ways to reduce the technosphere’s cradle-to-grave ecological impacts—and host discussion.

BEYOND THE MARKETING TERMS

Every time I hear someone call solar PVs, industrial wind turbines, battery energy storage (BESS) or e-vehicles “green,” “clean,” “zero-emitting” or “renewable,” I flinch.

Whenever someone asks how much energy and, water and toxic waste are involved in operating (say) a data center, and the person responding fails to include the energy, water, mining, intercontinental shipping and toxic waste involved in manufacturing the servers and cooling systems, and the person responding fails to discuss the impacts of discarding these servers and cooling systems (which need replacing every few years and do not biodegrade), I cringe.

I flinch and cringe a lot.

Does people who call these technologies “green,” “clean,” “zero-emitting” or “renewable” know that these are merely marketing terms?

I understand that coal-burning power stations generate coal ash—toxic substances like arsenic and lithium that can leach into groundwater and air and harm health if they’re inhaled or ingested. Modern landfills must have a protective barrier below the coal ash to prevent contaminants from leaching into groundwater. But landfills constructed before that practice existed…now require cleanup that can take ten years. https://bouldercounty.gov/environment/water/valmont-station/

I wouldn’t wish coal ash on any neighborhood. But ignoring the ecological and public health impacts of solar PVs, wind turbines and BESS from their cradles-to-graves does not make them disappear. Here are a few significant issues:

· 81% of (say) a laptop’s energy use is consumed before its end-user turns the laptop on for the first time.

· Manufacturing silicon (for solar panels or transistors) burns coal and trees. Panels are coated with PFAs in four places.

· Users who expect 24/7 electricity will need to connect to the (fossil-fuel-powered) grid or use batteries, which are toxic to manufacture and flammable.

· At their end-of-life, solar panels are hazardous waste. They do not biodegrade.

BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS (BESS) and SOLAR PV HAZARDS

Way back in 2019, Calvin Luther Martin, PhD, made an excellent, two-part slide show about BESS. Once you get to Part 1, scroll down to begin. Here’s Part 2.

If you’re fighting a BESS proposal in court, check out Dr. Martin’s collection of papers about their hazards, including Aiello et al’s 2025 report about coastal wetland deposition of cathode metals from the world’s largest lithium-ion battery fire at Moss Landing, California.

Also from Dr. Martin: Solar Energy: Yes or No? and Why solar energy farms are a bust. He explains, for example, that near airports, solar panel glare can blind pilots. Do a ForgeSolar “solar glare” analysis and ask the court to pause your case until a solar glare report is completed.

DATA CENTERS

Jason Bak, CEO of Green Data Center Real Estate, says his proposed “world’s largest” green data center between Socorro and Magdalena, New Mexico has renewable energy (there’s that marketing term) and water neutrality and it partners with local institutions like New Mexico Tech. The data center would operate at 2-gigawatts, similar to the Hoover Dam. (Most existing data centers operate in the tens to low hundreds of megawatts.) Then, since solar PVs provide only intermittent power, generating continuous (“baseload”) power for this data center would require building massive generation capacity and equally massive battery storage. Bak claims the panels would generate atsmopheric water to keep them clean (and efficient). Atmospheric water generation depends on humidity that Socorro rarely has. To protect NM’s Midle Rio Grande Community, check out Common Ground Rising; and sign and share this petition.

A Michigan utility has okayed a 12-month ban on supplying water for data centers.

Monterey Park, a small city seven miles east of Los Angeles, became the first in California to permanently ban data center construction. The ordinances officially label data centers a public nuisance and “prohibit all data centers within city limits.”

To oppose A.I. data centers, people are building a new political coalition. Learn How to Stop a Data Center in Your Backyard.

TRANSITIONING TO ECO-FRIENDLY FARMING

With worldwide shortages in synthetic fertilizers (resulting from the Strait of Hormuz’s closure), Vijay Kumar Thalam explains how 1.8 million farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India have transitioned from chemical-intensive agriculture to eco-friendly techniques that improve soil health, farmer livelihoods and rural resilience. A recording with Didi Pershouse.

TAKE ACTION TO STOP Congress from legalizing the liquidation of the USA’s national forests.

The NY Times reported that when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran last month, “black rain fell from the sky as airborne oil droplets mixed with precipitation and coated streets, cars, plants and pets. Across Tehran, people reported burning eyes, migraines, dizziness and coughing…. Smoke from a bombed oil depot would include benzene, formaldehyde and other carcinogens”… and endanger lives on a massive scale.” The burning oil depots probably also contaminated parts of Tehran’s water supply.

MORE

Virginia has joined the trend to reduce local control of wireless permitting. The state’s HB277 prohibits a locality from denying an application for the modification of an existing wireless facility if the modification would not substantially change the physical dimensions of the existing wireless facility. Local control is also preempted for co-locations of new transmission equipment, the removal of transmission equipment and the replacement of transmission equipment. WHY would a state give up its control???
An Italian mayor ordered wireless networks turned off in municipal schools due to electromagnetic radiation exposure to children and replaced wireless connection with Ethernet cables.

Would you buy me a cup of tea each month and upgrade to paid?