SteveKLord

The booming solar industry has found an unlikely mascot in sheep as large-scale solar farms crop up across the U.S. and in the plain fields of Texas. In Milam County, outside Austin, SB Energy operates the fifth-largest solar project in the country, capable of generating 900 megawatts of power across 4,000 acres (1,618 hectares).

How do they manage all that grass? With the help of about 3,000 sheep, which are better suited than lawnmowers to fit between small crevices and chew away rain or shine.

The proliferation of sheep on solar farms is part of a broader trend — solar grazing — that has exploded alongside the solar industry.

For some time, there has been a forecast that The Great Salt Lake, once one of the largest inland salt lakes in the world. New data confirms the likelihood of the disaster.

If the lake does disappear, it causes real problems. According to NPR, “The big unknown is how bad dust storms could get from a dried up lake bed. There is precedent. Along California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains, years of water diversions from the Owens River by the city of Los Angeles caused downstream saline Owens Lake to dry up. Dust storms from that lake bed became the largest single source of dust pollution in the nation.”

One of Hollywood’s worst weeks in just got worse. David Lynch, the four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, The Elephant Man and others who also created the Showtime drama Twin Peaks, has died at 78. His family posted the news on social media.

A study shows that claims about renewable energy's high cost are demonstrably false.

The Wall Street Journal and Fraser Institute published the articles about solar and wind power Jan. 1, and Steve Hanley of CleanTechnica debunked the arguments with the help of Mark Jacobson, director of Stanford University's Atmosphere/Energy Program.

Jacobson was the lead author of a paper that shows clean energy does not produce expensive and unstable electricity, as the articles claimed.

A street university for solarpunks, dreamers and activists is launching in the UK this February. The London School of Solarpunk (LSOS) is a space to invent new ways of urban living and find positive responses to the many crises we're facing.

Facilitated by the Idea Factory, it’s a 4-week programme taking place in Hackney for up to 15 participants. It will feature lectures ranging from social art to energy humanities as well as cooperative economies and creative activism. Those taking part will also co-design group readings, discussions and social experiments.

Last June, Pasadena, California — about 11 miles from downtown Los Angeles — decreed that June 22 was Octavia E. Butler Day, in honor of the science fiction writer born in the city on that date in 1947. The Pasadena middle school Butler attended was renamed for her in 2022.

Butler, who died in 2006, has in the past few years been celebrated nationally, including posthumous profiles in the New York Times, New York magazine, and more. Particular attention has been paid to the prescience of her Parable series of books. Organizers and artists, like adrienne maree brown, spent the 2010s calling attention to Butler’s work — and her warnings.

The first book in the series, Parable of the Sower, published in 1993, begins on July 20, 2024, the 15th birthday of Butler’s protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina. Olamina grew up in the fictional LA suburb of Robledo, described by Los Angeles journalist, essayist, and author Lynell George as “a struggling walled suburb… besieged by severe drought; class wars; violent, fire-setting scavengers; and a long-embattled population seized by political apathy.” In the second book, Parable of the Talents, published in 1998, a candidate runs using the slogan “Make America Great Again.”

In a major move set to electrify action film aficionados, Shout! Studios has nabbed worldwide rights (excluding select Asian territories) to the coveted Golden Princess movie library, a treasure trove of 156 Hong Kong cinema classics that’s been MIA from Western markets for decades.

The deal, which brings together Hollywood’s indie powerhouse with one of Hong Kong cinema’s most prestigious catalogs, includes genre-defining works from directing legends John Woo and Tsui Hark, alongside star-studded vehicles featuring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Leslie Cheung.

The acquisition’s crown jewels include Woo’s action masterpieces “Hard Boiled,” “The Killer,” the complete “Better Tomorrow” trilogy, “Bullet in the Head” and “Once a Thief.” The library also boasts Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire,” “Prison on Fire” and its sequel; Eric Tsang’s “Aces Go Places”; Tsui’s “Peking Opera Blues”; Tony Ching’s “Chinese Ghost Story” trilogy; and additional hits like Wai Ka-fai’s “Peace Hotel,” Andrew Kam and Johnnie To’s “The Big Heat” and Alex Law’s “Now You See It, Now You Don’t.”

One evening, while walking through the forest in Albisrieden, a neighborhood in Zurich, the duo observed some green light through their camera. Sometimes the fungi's bioluminescence is so weak it cannot be seen with the naked eye. "Nowadays we always have our mobile phones or a flashlight, but to see bioluminescence in the forest, it has to be pitch black," says Rudolf.

The artists collected some samples of the glowing specimen thinking it was Mycena haematopus, a known bioluminescent species. Back in their well-lit studio, they realized it was another species, Mycena crocata, the saffron drop bonnet mushroom, known for its saffron-colored milk, which had not previously been described as bioluminescent.

This quick cycling between very wet and very dry periods — one example of what scientists have come to call “weather whiplash” — creates prime conditions for wildfires: The rain encourages an abundance of brush and grass, and once all that vegetation dries out, it only takes a spark and a gust of wind to fuel a deadly fire. That’s what happened in Los Angeles County this week, when a fierce windstorm fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires, which as of Wednesday night had killed at least five people, destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

The kind of weather whiplash that fueled the fires is only becoming more common, and not just in the United States. A new analysis in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment has found that rapid shifts between heavy rain and drought (and vice versa) are becoming more intense — and the trend is unfolding faster than climate models have projected. Across the world’s land area, weather whiplash within three-month periods has increased by 31 to 66 percent since the mid-20th century, according to the research. That means that most places around the world find themselves getting both wetter and drier in quick succession, a dangerous combination that can lead to landslides, crop losses, and even the spread of diseases.

Urban farming is often heralded as a practical solution to food deserts, providing fresh produce to communities where unjust urban planning and policy have limited access to nutritious options. But urban farms can also sow seeds that grow far beyond the garden beds.

In Baltimore’s Curtis Bay neighborhood, Filbert Street Garden is showing the power of community-led transformation. Once an overgrown lot, it has evolved into a vibrant community hub, thanks to the dedication of Black farmers like Brittany Coverdale, whose passion for racial and environmental justice led her to the garden coordinator role at Filbert Street Garden.

The ongoing brutality committed against Indigenous peoples — land grabs, genocide, continuing disregard for self-determination and sovereignty — bolster a culture of over-consumption and play an undeniable role in the climate crisis. Given that anger is a hallmark of heavy metal, it isn’t surprising that an Indigenous audience would find it appealing.

Although often associated with Satan, swords, and sorcery (and illegible logos), metal has always reflected on the environment and the state of the world. Indigenous bands have been part of the scene almost from its start more than five decades ago, but the past few years have seen a growing number of Native musicians writing about a wide range of subjects, from rurality to discrimination to the universal experience of having a good time despite all of that.

Imaginary Worlds is a show about science fiction, fantasy and other genres of speculative fiction hosted by Eric Molinsky. They have covered everything from the meteoric rise of Romantasy through to the beautiful craft behind Blue Eyed Samurai.

In 2020 they did an episode about our genre featuring two of our solarpunk sisters Sarena Ulibarri and Keisha Howard. That led to solarpunk featuring prominently as one of the highlights of the past decade by Eric in a recent Tenth Anniversary double episode for the podcast.

As part of that he shared how one listener contacted him to let her know how the episode had affected her. Morag McDonald was feeling pretty hopeless about climate change and generally down in her life. Hearing about solarpunk, about ‘a future that was hopeful and possible with real people acting to make it happen’ lifted her spirits.