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Key oceans treaty crosses critical threshold to come into force

A landmark global treaty to safeguard ocean biodiversity will take effect in January after receiving its 60th ratification, paving the way for new marine protected areas in international waters. Environmental groups hailed the move as a turning point for ocean conservation.

A landmark global treaty to safeguard ocean biodiversity will take effect in January after receiving its 60th ratification, paving the way for new marine protected areas in international waters. Environmental groups hailed the move as a turning point for ocean conservation.

Conservation
Water

The Dark Matter of Food: Why Most of Nutrition Remains a Mystery

What we eat is packed with hidden chemistry that may hold the key to both disease and health. When the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, many believed this breakthrough would reveal the full origins of disease. Yet, genetics accounts for only about 10% of overall risk. The remaining 90% is shaped by environmental [...]

Food is far more than calories and nutrients, it’s a chemical universe we’ve barely begun to map. Unlocking this “nutritional dark matter” could transform our understanding of health and disease. Credit: ShutterstockWhat we eat is packed with hidden chemistry that may hold the key to both disease and health. When the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, many believed this breakthrough would reveal the full origins of disease. Yet, genetics accounts for only about 10% of overall risk. The remaining 90% is shaped by environmental factors, with diet playing a particularly significant role. Globally, poor nutrition is estimated to contribute to roughly one in five deaths among adults over the age of 25. In Europe, dietary factors alone are responsible for nearly half of all cardiovascular fatalities. Despite decades of public health campaigns urging people to reduce fat, salt, and sugar, obesity rates and diet-related diseases have continued to climb. Clearly, something is missing from the way we think about food. Beyond calories and nutrients For much of modern history, nutrition has been described in simplified terms, viewing food primarily as fuel and nutrients as the building blocks of the body. Attention has focused on about 150 well-known chemicals such as proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins. However, researchers now believe that the human diet actually contains more than 26,000 distinct compounds, the majority of which remain largely unexplored. Here is where astronomy provides a useful comparison. Astronomers know that dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe. It doesn’t emit or reflect light, and so it cannot be seen directly but its gravitational effects reveal that it must exist. Nutrition science faces something similar. The vast majority of chemicals in food are invisible to us in terms of research. We consume them every day, but we have little idea what they do. Some experts refer to these unknown molecules as “nutritional dark matter.” It’s a reminder that just as the cosmos is filled with hidden forces, our diet is packed with hidden chemistry. When researchers analyze disease, they look at a vast array of foods, although any association often cannot be matched to known molecules. This is the dark matter of nutrition – the compounds we ingest daily but haven’t been mapped or studied. Some may encourage health, but others may increase the risk of disease. The challenge is finding out which do what. Foodomics as a new approach The field of foodomics aims to do exactly that. It brings together genomics (the role of genes), proteomics (proteins), metabolomics (cell activity) and nutrigenomics (the interaction of genes and diet). These approaches are starting to reveal how diet interacts with the body in ways far beyond calories and vitamins. Take the Mediterranean diet (filled with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, and fish, with limited red meat and sweets), for example, which is known to reduce the risk of heart disease. But why does it work? One clue lies in a molecule called TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide), produced when gut bacteria metabolize compounds in red meat and eggs. High levels of TMAO increase the risk of heart disease. But garlic, for example, contains substances that block its production. This is one example of how diet can tip the balance between health and harm. Gut microbes and food chemistry Gut bacteria also play a major role. When compounds reach the colon, microbes transform them into new chemicals that can affect inflammation, immunity and metabolism. For example, ellagic acid – found in various fruits and nuts – is converted by gut bacteria into urolithins. These are a group of natural compounds that help keep our mitochondria (the body’s energy factories) healthy. This shows how food is a complex web of interacting chemicals. One compound can influence many biological mechanisms, which in turn can affect many others. Diet can even switch genes on or off through epigenetics – changes in gene activity that don’t alter DNA itself. History has provided stark examples of this. For example, children born to mothers who endured famine in the Netherlands during the Second World War were more likely to develop heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and schizophrenia later in life. Decades on, scientists found their gene activity had been altered by what their mothers ate – or didn’t eat – while pregnant. Mapping the hidden food universe Projects such as the Foodome Project are now attempting to catalogue this hidden chemical universe. More than 130,000 molecules have already been listed, linking food compounds to human proteins, gut microbes and disease processes. The aim is to build an atlas of how diet interacts with the body, and to pinpoint which molecules really matter for health. The hope is that by understanding nutritional dark matter, we can answer questions that have long frustrated nutrition science. Why do certain diets work for some people but not others? Why do foods sometimes prevent, and sometimes promote, disease? Which food molecules could be harnessed to develop new drugs, or new foods? We are still at the beginning. But the message is clear – the food on our plate is not just calories and nutrients, but a vast chemical landscape we are only starting to chart. Just as mapping cosmic dark matter is transforming our view of the universe, uncovering nutritional dark matter could transform how we eat, how we treat disease and how we understand health itself. Adapted from an article originally published in The Conversation. Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

Food
Health
Energy

Hundreds plunge in Chicago River for first official swim in nearly 100 years

Group participates in previously unthinkable mile-long swim after US made key progress to clean polluted riversHundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution. Continue reading...

Hundreds of people plunged into the Chicago River’s chilly waters on Sunday as part of the first organized swim in the river for nearly 100 years, a previously unthinkable act in what was once one of the most befouled waterways in the world.About 300 people, some wearing wetsuits, jumped into the Chicago River for a mile-long looping swim on an early, overcast midwest morning, a feat made possible by the often unseen but crucial progress the US has made in the past half century in cleaning its rivers of toxic pollution.“It’s overwhelming to see this happen, it’s unbelievable to see swimmers swim past us now,” said Doug McConnell, the main organizer of the event.McConnell, a Chicago area native and co-founder of A Long Swim, had been pushing the city’s leadership for more than a decade to allow a swim in the river, the first such event since 1927, having witnessed the blossoming urban river swimming movement take hold in cities such as Paris, Munich and Amsterdam.“Seeing that really planted a seed, and we are thrilled we are finally doing this and that it has got global attention – we had applications across the US and 13 countries,” said McConnell, who hopes this will become an annual event and spread to other US cities.McConnell didn’t leap into the water on Sunday but is an accomplished long-distance swimmer, having traversed the English Channel, which he recalls as “14 hours of getting slapped around”, and swam around the island of Manhattan, all in aid of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) fundraising.“I think the water conditions will surprise people because it will be cleaner than they expect,” he said. “The psychology of so many Chicagoans was that the river is untouchable – this isn’t true and we are proving this today.“My grandfather grew up in Chicago and I think what his reaction to all of this would be because the river had an absolutely toxic reputation then. It was repulsive, absolutely untouchable.”The Chicago River has a long history of being meddled with. Each year it is dyed green for St Patrick’s Day and, infamously, in 2004 the tour bus of Dave Matthews Band released 800lbs (363kg) of human waste through a bridge grate that landed on top of a boat of mightily unfortunate sightseers traveling on the river.Indeed, Chicago initially grew by treating its slow-moving river as an unfettered dumping area. Sewage and other waste was routinely funneled into the river, including carcasses and effluent from huge slaughterhouses that clustered beside the waterway – to the extent that a section of the river is still called “bubble creek” due to the gas given off by the rotting sludge on the riverbed.The river became so foul, causing deadly outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, that the city took the extraordinary step in 1900 of reversing the river’s flow by creating a system of canals and locks, to avoid Chicago’s source of drinking water in Lake Michigan becoming poisoned. Today, the 156-mile (265km) river meanders from Lake Michigan through Chicago so its water ultimately empties into the Gulf of Mexico.“We treated the river like it was part of the sewer system, which haunted us,” said Margaret Frisbie, the executive director of Friends of the Chicago River. Riverside buildings typically didn’t even have windows overlooking what was known as “the stinking river”, with the ribbon of water shunned as part of Chicago’s civic fabric.“Until just a few years ago people would’ve thought it would be outrageous to jump into it,” Frisbie said. When Friends of the Chicago River formed in 1979 with a vision to restore the ecological function of a river that could be enjoyed by people and wildlife alike, “people thought we were crazy,” she said.Yet the 1970s was a seminal decade for environmental protection in the US, with the passage of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – bringing new restrictions on pollution dumped into rivers, streams and lakes. Where once American rivers were so toxic they could catch fire, a new era had begun that would allow US cities to think more affectionately of their foundational waterways.In Chicago, the slaughterhouses shut down, new sewage and storm water infrastructure was built and teams of volunteers, as they do to this day, toiled to clean up trash.Dozens of species of fish returned, as did beavers and snapping turtles such as Chonkosaurus, an enormous, locally famous specimen sometimes seen lounging by the river.In 2016, a riverside public pathway was completed to knit the downtown area to its adjacent water, allowing Chicagoans in new bars and restaurants to gaze upon a river that is no longer a fetid soup, a place clean enough that people can now swim in it. On 12 September, it was announced that Friends of the Chicago River won an international prize in recognition of the river’s transformation.“So many people are on rental boats on the river these days – it’s heaving with people,” Frisbie said. “People want to work near the river, live near it, be on it. It’s remarkable to see people have that connection with it again.“This swim is emblematic of all the work we’ve done over the past 50 years to improve our rivers. It shows you can change the destiny of any natural resource and do some good. It feels that’s something we need right now.”America’s rivers may now increasingly be places of scenic recreation rather than industrial sacrifice zones, but this does depend on the vicissitudes of politics. The Trump administration is narrowing the application of the Clean Water Act, which helped ensure healthier rivers, and is similarly weakening rules on what coal plants and factories can dump in waterways. The bad old days may be a thing of the past, but ongoing progress isn’t guaranteed.“If the federal government retreats from enforcement, things could slide backwards,” Frisbie said. “It’s incumbent on cities, countries and states to be vigilant. Our river is beloved now – people want to use it, wildlife needs it, we need it. We want to maintain that rather than see it roll back.”On Sunday, though, few swimmers were mulling such weighty topics as they lined up in robes, serenaded by the skirl of the Chicago police department’s bagpipes and drum, before stripping and vaulting into the river, bobbling flotation devices tethered to their waists.Organizers had zealously tested the water in the weeks before the event, finding that the river was consistently safe in terms of EPA standards on fecal coliform – essentially, poo in the water. The river was scanned, too, for any potential obstructions to the swimmers.Among the participants for the first river swim in 98 years – all strictly vetted to ensure they could complete the course – was Olivia Smoliga, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and went on to win a gold medal in backstroke at the 2016 Olympic games.Open water swimming is a different beast to the lanes of a pool, but Smoliga’s competitive spirit compelled her to speed around the river loop, even though it was not intended to be a race.“You have people throwing elbows there – you have to watch out for fingernail length, everything,” she said. “The fact they were able to clean up the river and do such great work, to have this full on race happen, is trippy. But it’s really cool.”

Pollution
Water
Health

Opinion: Collaboration, not litigation, can support both salmon and hydropower

We live in a region where both salmon and hydropower production can and do co-exist, writes Scott Simms of the Public Power Council. Failing to find a path forward that supports both is a missed opportunity for everyone who calls the Northwest their home.

Scott SimmsFor The Oregonian/OregonLiveSimms is chief executive officer and executive director of the Public Power Council, which represents more than 80 nonprofit, community owned electric utilities across six Pacific Northwest states, including Oregon.A recent op-ed by Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association’s Liz Hamilton left some key facts out of the conversation about our region’s salmon and our hydropower system (“Back to court, but our regional work to protect salmon will continue,” Sept. 14). It’s true that a coalition of fishing and special interest groups, the states of Oregon and Washington and four Lower Columbia River Treaty tribes requested a federal judge lift a stay in decades-old litigation over how to manage the Columbia Basin. We have long been in conflict with those who believe that dismantling dams on the Lower Snake River – which produce reliable hydropower for the region – is essential to protecting salmon. However, we do not believe that conflict is necessary. Rather, we believe now is the time for the region to focus on shared goals of restoring fish while maintaining an adequate and affordable power system. Instead of endless litigation, we can strengthen programs that protect sensitive environmental areas, improve habitat and deploy new technologies that help fish pass safely through dams. Although there are significant disagreements that will require negotiation, we can make progress more quickly through collaboration than litigation. And there have already been gains. Since Bonneville Dam first began operating in 1938, the number of returning adult salmon and steelhead has tripled, according to fish counts from dams across the Columbia River basin compiled by the University of Washington’s Data Access in Real Time system. While there’s still a lot of work ahead to continue strengthening certain runs, we are witnessing fish populations bouncing back, even with dams in place.At the same time as these fish returns are improving, the states of Oregon and Washington have expanded non-tribal salmon fishing seasons for sport and commercial operations. Fishing groups don’t mention this when they advocate for severely hobbling or demolishing the region’s hydro projects. But the impact of sport and commercial fishing on salmon should not be ignored in a comprehensive discussion about how to protect fish populations. As recently as this month, Oregon and Washington fisheries managers approved an extension of commercial gillnetting operations in the Columbia River. The practice of commercial gillnetting – in which massive nets extend up to 1,500 feet into the river – is so effective at ensnaring all types of fish, endangered or not, that critics have repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to ban its use. These efforts are in addition to the offshore commercial harvests that happen when trawlers cruise the international waters off our region’s shores, hauling out salmon and other species by the ton every year. These salmon never make it back to their spawning grounds, nor, importantly, to the historic fishing areas where the region’s tribes have rights under U.S. treaties.Meanwhile, the same groups advocating for a return to the courtroom also do not acknowledge the critically important role our region’s clean, renewable hydro system plays in powering homes and businesses and funding salmon recovery efforts. In the heat dome that gripped the Northwest in 2021 and the massive cold snap that hit us in 2024, the hydropower generated by dams was the single largest source of electricity fueling the Northwest, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Hourly Grid Monitor. These are two extreme events that, because of a changing climate and an increase in electricity dependency, will stress our system even more in the future. Hydropower has long been the backbone of our region’s energy system, and it will be even more critical in the next decade, as electricity consumption is forecast to grow by more than 30%. While many understand that hydro powers our communities and our modern lives, few are aware that the system also funds one of the world’s largest fish and wildlife mitigation programs in the world. The region’s nonprofit electric utilities, which buy their power from the federal Bonneville Power Administration, have collectively paid more than $715 million annually from 2013 to 2023 to fund hatcheries, habitat improvements, predation management and other actions.The op-ed dismisses a 2020 plan for Columbia River operations as putting the needs of salmon last. But that plan, developed over a course of years under both Republican and Democratic administrations, helped deliver a banner year for salmon returns to the region in 2024, while also ensuring a strong hydropower supply that carried us through extreme weather events. This plan set out to balance of the needs in the basin – without breaching dams that coalition members use as a cornerstone for their advocacy.We live in a region where both salmon and hydropower production can and do co-exist. Failing to find a path forward that supports both is such a missed opportunity for everyone who calls the Northwest their home. We in Northwest public power stand ready to avoid a return to the courtroom and to sit down with litigants to do the hard work of collaborating on a solution. We remain hopeful that the coalition groups will join us. Share your opinion Submit your essay of 600-700 words on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. No attachments, please. Please include your email and phone number for verification. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Business
Climate
Energy

As UN Climate Talks Loom in Brazil, Many Would-Be Participants Fear They Can't Afford to Attend

With less than two months until this year's United Nations climate change conference, many prospective attendees are still looking for housing in the small Brazilian host city of Belem

Pooja Tilvawala knows it's a gamble to use more than $46,000 of her own savings to help young people get to the United Nations climate summit in Brazil. But she thinks it’s a necessary one.As national delegations, activists and other attendees struggle to find affordable places to stay by November, with some deciding not to go at all, Tilvawala, who lives in London, has spent hours working from afar to find lodging in Belem, negotiate prices and contracts and put down deposits. She did all that to create a housing portal specifically for young people who want to be part of the international conference. If not enough people sign up for the housing she’s secured, she might lose some of what she’s put down. “There’s always a huge number of fossil fuel company representatives there. And who’s going to be there to combat those voices and those negotiating influences?” said Tilvawala, founder and executive director of the global organization Youth Climate Collaborative. “So I was like, ‘We need to be here.’”With less than two months before this year's Conference of the Parties, or COP30, only about 36% of the 196 participating countries have confirmed attendance and paid for accommodations, according to a spokesperson for the conference presidency. Activists and poorer nations are feeling the crunch as hotel prices have skyrocketed and even private homes, love motels and other makeshift accommodation options are charging a minimum of several hundred dollars a night. Many haven't confirmed housing yet, and the pressure is on The Brazilian government has taken steps to address the problem. Climate Minister Marina Silva said 10 to 20 rooms have been made available “at accessible prices” for vulnerable countries. The government has also brought in two large cruise shops that can house as many as 6,000 people. “Everybody will have access to participate in COP30," Silva said at a recent press briefing. “Facing climate change must be done by all of us, by all the parties of the convention and especially by those who are already living the consequences of climate change.”But U.N. Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell sent a letter on Sept. 9 asking that agencies in the U.N. system, and related organizations, review how many people they're sending to COP30 and reduce it where possible.To add to the pressure, a construction workers’ strike started Sept. 15 and includes areas being worked on for COP30. A challenge for a city chosen to illustrate climate realities Belem was initially excited to host the conference, said Arnaldo Vaz Neto, a Brazilian financial advisor who has been working with an organization called the Young Scholars Initiative as an intermediary between locals and COP30 visitors seeking housing. “It’s kind of taught in our childhood to have this behavior of hospitality," he said. But that was followed by the realization that the United Nations had high international standards for its guests. It was difficult to manage expectations on both sides, Vaz Neto said.Belem isn't the only city hosting a U.N. climate conference where lodging rates have gone far higher than usual. Silva said it's happened at nearly all such conferences, with prices three or even four times market rates.“A lot of people here are expecting to charge $1,000 a night but that’s beyond the average,” Hugo Pinheiro, a secretary who works for K Pine Mobile in Belem, and has worked to match delegations with housing and to negotiate on prices.The “accessible” rooms made available by the Brazilian government will rent for between $200 and $600 a night, according to a COP30 presidency spokesperson. Brazilian officials have expressed confidence that all 196 nations will find housing and come to Belem. In a statement, the presidency said it expects 50,000 participants and Belem currently offers 53,000 beds. That's fewer people than recent COPs, even though the Brazil meeting is considered one of the most important negotiations in years because countries have to update and strengthen their carbon pollution plans. Still, housing is making it more difficult for people from some poorer countries and Indigenous groups to attend, as well as for those that traditionally attend COP outside of a country delegation, including activists, NGO and nonprofit groups and youth observers. Some organizations that represent them expect to send fewer people.Hailey Campbell leads Care About Climate, a youth-oriented NGO that was one of the first of its kind to be accredited to attend COP over 10 years ago. Campbell said her group has “never faced such difficulties with access to accommodation." The group posted about the issue on Instagram with the hashtag “#DontPriceUsOut.”Many individual attendees have already decided they can't come. Others are on the fence. Some who will attend are considering options like camping in a tent.This year Hikaru Hayakawa said he's heard from more people who have decided not to go than he remembers at this time in years past — already maybe 30 or 40 people, by his estimate.That's worrisome because many activists from other countries will now miss out on experiencing the strong civil society culture in Brazil, said Hayakawa, executive director of Climate Cardinals, which translates climate information and trains young people. “It could potentially be lost opportunity to build these global networks," he said.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Climate
Activism
Government

Meet the small business owners electrifying Maine’s rural coast

In Casco Bay’s remote waters, electric workboats and the aquaculture innovators who operate them are putting marine electrification to the test.

On a sunny, 85-degree day in August of 2025, some 9,300 oysters were loaded into ice-filled containers on southern Maine’s Casco Bay. The boat shuttling them from the warm, shallow waters of Recompense Cove to the marina two miles away hummed quietly. Notably missing: the roar of an engine and the smell of diesel.  Heron, the boat in question, is a 28-foot aluminum vessel that runs on two 100 percent electric outboards, the motors that hang off of small and medium-sized boats. It’s one of the first commercial workboats in the United States to use electric outboards. The vessel officially splashed into the waters of South Freeport, Maine, on July 17, 2025. The moment, though, had been years in the making. It required a coalition of industry-wide partners, a $500,000 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant, and at least that much in matching funds from the operating businesses’ cost share agreement and philanthropic investments through the Rockland, Maine-based Island Institute, the Maine Technology Institute, and others. Altogether, the $1 million private-public investment covers Heron’s $425,000 sticker price and the costs to install two high-capacity shoreside chargers. A portion of these funds also supports data collection and research to assess the viability of electric technology in the greater aquaculture industry.  Willy Leathers is the director of farm operations and owner of Maine Ocean Farms, the mid-size aquaculture business that operates this particular boat. The 10-acre plot he and farm co-founder Eric Oransky tend to on Recompense Cove holds about 3 million oysters. The two farmers are among a growing group of small business owners on the cutting edge of marine innovation along rural and remote parts of Maine’s coast. They’ve been in operation together just shy of a decade, and have seen the aquaculture industry spring up around them in the coves and small islands that make up Casco Bay. Beyond the bay is the wide-open Gulf of Maine, which has been documented as one of the world’s fastest-warming bodies of water. Between 2004 and 2016, it warmed more quickly than 99 percent of the global ocean, a trend scientists attribute to climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels.  For Leathers and Oransky, there’s a connection between electrifying operations and transitioning away from the fossil fuels that have impacted their home waters. But beyond reducing environmental impact, the farmers say there’s another motivator: being a good neighbor. One feature of replacing traditional gas and diesel-powered outboards is that the electric versions are quieter. “Our boats are our workplaces,” said Leathers. “We’re out there for eight hours a day, five days a week, so reducing noise and reducing on-site emissions is a goal of not only improving the workplace but also improving our potential impact on the environment around us, whether in an ecological sense or a community sense.” Staying in the community’s good graces is essential for a business that operates year-round in close quarters with at least a dozen other farms, as well as traditional fisheries and shorefront landowners.  By the winter, Leathers and his crew expect to load between 10,000 and 15,000 oysters onto Heron each day they harvest. When the temperatures drop, they’ll no longer need containers filled with ice to keep the oysters cool. What the farmers don’t know is how the technology in their new battery-powered boat will fare in these cold, salty conditions. Part of their mission, and the DOE grant agreement, is to find out. “There’s a great proving ground here, of saying if this technology is going to develop, this is a place where it’s going to be put through its paces,” Leathers said.  A tractor for the sea A few miles down the coast, Chad Strater cruised up the Cousins River in Yarmouth, Maine on his 26-foot, all-electric workboat. He was headed to the Sea Meadow Marine Foundation, a nonprofit waterfront facility he co-owns and is actively transforming into what he calls an “aquaculture innovation hub.”  Since its launch last fall, Strater has used his electric boat almost daily for the marine construction work he does with his own business, the Boat Yard, and with partner Shred Electric, a startup that replaces gas generators with batteries to power sea farm equipment. Both the Boat Yard and Shred Electric share space at the Sea Meadow Marine Foundation’s Yarmouth facility. Strater’s boat has one battery-powered outboard that can haul equipment to sea farms and other marine businesses within a 15 mile radius on Casco Bay. Nick Planson, Shred Electric’s CEO and Strater’s business partner, said the two were impressed by the boat’s performance during the winter. The switch to an electric outboard was born of necessity, Strater said. When using a gas-powered boat, he’d lose fuel from idling and maneuvering the boat around work sites. Now, Strater’s success with the electric boat doubles as a model for others in the marine industry, like sea farmers, who are curious about making a switch.  Maine Ocean Farms owner Willy Leathers (left) handles what he calls “product”: three year old oysters ready for market. Fellow farmer and co-founder Eric Oransky (right) prepares to sort the mesh bag cages where the oysters grow. Julia Tilton / The Daily Yonder “You need the right tools to do the job,” said Strater. “You can’t be out there farming potatoes in a tractor from 1982 and expect to be efficient. So developing tools that make sense for efficiency, for Maine sea farmers, is what we’re doing.” In this early stage of marine electrification, aquaculture operations, or sea farms, are a logical use case, said Lia Morris, the senior community development officer at the Island Institute’s Center for Marine Economy. That’s because farmers have known variables like range, location, capacity, and schedule that tend not to change. Morris is working with Willy Leathers and Maine Ocean Farms on data collection and analysis as they compare their new boat, Heron, to a control: their existing gas-powered workboat.  “It’s almost like writing the case studies,” said Morris. “It’s putting the qualitative and quantitative data on paper and presenting the solution so that people can see how they can replicate it. That’s part of our long game in terms of outboards and commercial adoption.” Still, there are significant hurdles when it comes to scaling up electrification in Maine’s aquaculture industry. Up front, electric boats are anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent more expensive than gas-powered ones. Once they’re in the water, charging is difficult because Maine’s sea farms are spread across a vast and mostly rural area that is largely unequipped with the charging infrastructure this transition will require.  “It’s the chicken and the egg problem,” Leathers said. “What comes first? You put a charger in and there’s nobody to use it, or you have a bunch of boats waiting to charge, but then nobody wants to invest in the boats because there’s nowhere to charge them.” Uncharted waters Like Leathers’ boat Heron, Strater’s boat was funded in part by federal and philanthropic support, including grants from some of the same institutional partners like Island Institute and Maine Technology Institute. About half of the boat’s cost, which comes in around $100,000, was financed with private investment and loans from the Coastal Enterprises Inc., a community development financial institution that helps Maine’s small businesses access lending.  Strater said the boat’s relatively low cost, about a fourth of the price tag on a boat like Leathers’ Heron, is an important part of the pilot model, since many small business owners can’t foot a several hundred thousand dollar investment up front. He and Planson have worked with the Coastal Enterprises Inc. on a marine green loan program to set up additional financing options apart from federal and philanthropic grant structures. It’s part of Planson’s philosophy to “de-risk” electrification for farmers who want to try the new technology without financial strain. “We’re working towards having all of these solutions be affordable without grant funding,” said Planson.  Chad Strater has been using his electric workboat almost daily since it launched in the fall of 2024. Julia Tilton / The Daily Yonder For now, that’s an uphill climb. In Maine, it comes at a time when marine businesses are already struggling to overcome rising costs associated with working on a rapidly developing coastline. In the early 2000s, nonprofit and government entities in Maine identified a growing risk to the state’s “working waterfront,” a term used to describe the network of access points that marine industries, including the state’s $3.2 billion seafood sector, depend on to make a living. A 2006 report commissioned by the Island Institute found that of Maine’s 3,500 miles of coastline, only 20 miles were dedicated working waterfront space.  The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association listed climate change, sea level rise, and real estate development as ongoing threats to Maine’s working waterfront in a 2020 report. Of the state’s remaining 20 miles of working waterfront, NOAA wrote that just eight miles are dedicated for public use. The remaining 12 miles are privately owned and thus vulnerable to residential or commercial development.  Rebecca Rundquist is a board member of the Sea Meadow Marine Foundation, the nonprofit organization focused on protecting Maine’s working waterfront whose marina provides space for Strater and Planson’s electric boat. She said that development along the coast, and in a small town like Yarmouth, affects local food sources and the economy. She sees innovation as a way to “revitalize” communities and generate excitement around the working waterfront at a hyper-local scale. The Island Institute’s Lia Morris (left) is working with Willy Leathers (right) and his crew at Maine Ocean Farms to collect performance data on the electric boat Heron, pictured here charging from a low-capacity shoreside power supply at a slip in South Freeport, Maine. Julia Tilton / The Daily Yonder “Our message is we don’t have a one-size-fits-all. We’re here to show how you work with your community to identify the most important needs with these parcels,” said Runquist. In Yarmouth, the need revolves around aquaculture and electrification. Both Strater’s boat and Heron, the electric vessel operated by Maine Ocean Farms, will soon have access to a higher capacity level two charging station at the Sea Meadow Marine Foundation along the Cousins River. Once it’s installed, the boats will be able to get a full charge in a matter of hours as opposed to the overnight shift they plug in for now. The funding for the station comes from the Island Institute and the Island Institute and the DOE grant that helped build Heron.  While it’s a start, those involved on Casco Bay recognize there’s more progress to be made on charging infrastructure, particularly as businesses up the rural parts of the coast go electric. Island Institute is preparing to release a Shoreline Charging Infrastructure report later this year detailing specific challenges around grid readiness for marine electrification in Maine. “It will be a public resource that people can read and digest and ask questions,” Morris said. “Our goal and hope is really to elevate the conversation around electrification and electric propulsion.” Finding a charge For now, Strater keeps things simple. At the end of his workday, he docked the boat along the Cousins River and headed toward a Ford charger, the same one he uses to charge his all-electric Ford Lightning truck when it’s parked at the marina. The low-capacity level two charger is mounted on a wooden post a few yards from the shore. Strater grabbed a thick charging cable to run back down toward the water, and  a light blinked green on the charger as he plugged the cable into the all-electric outboard, hovering several feet out of the water. The boat would sit there, slowly charging, for the next eight hours.  A Ford charger provides low-capacity charging to the electric outboard on Chad Strater’s boat at the Sea Meadow Marine Foundation in Yarmouth, Maine. Strater can use the same charger to plug in his Ford Lightning electric truck when he’s at the marina. Julia Tilton / The Daily Yonder Usually, the down time isn’t a problem for Strater, who puts in eight-hour workdays on the boat and then leaves it overnight to charge. In the instance he does need a quick fill, he can tow the boat over land with his Ford Lightning to a Tesla fast charger off the nearby interstate. At the front edge of innovation, it’s this kind of creativity that makes Morris excited about the future of electric boat adoption in the region. “Mainers are scrappy and, you know — rural context — people figure out how to make things work,” Morris said. Reporting for this article was made possible by the Guerry Beam Memorial Reporting Grant award from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Meet the small business owners electrifying Maine’s rural coast on Sep 21, 2025.

Business
Water
Energy

CNN: Costa Rica Shifts From “Switzerland” to Drug Transit Route

CNN en Español published an article noting that Costa Rica has gone from being “the Switzerland of Central America” to becoming a key route for drug trafficking.“ Renowned for its peaceful and stable environment… today it faces a different reality, as reflected in the report published on Monday by the United States government,” the article said, […] The post CNN: Costa Rica Shifts From “Switzerland” to Drug Transit Route appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

CNN en Español published an article noting that Costa Rica has gone from being “the Switzerland of Central America” to becoming a key route for drug trafficking.“ Renowned for its peaceful and stable environment… today it faces a different reality, as reflected in the report published on Monday by the United States government,” the article said, referring to the fact that the country was named one of the main transit routes or centers of illicit drug production for fiscal year 2026. Costa Rican Security Minister Mario Zamora told CNN that the most important thing is that the country maintains its certification from the United States as a reliable partner in the fight against drugs in the region. The official added that Costa Rica, like the rest of the Central American nations, shares the geographical reality of being a “transit route between producer and consumer countries.” He insisted this is not something new, since the country has been part of the transit route for more than 35 years. Zamora told CNN that “there is no news,” emphasizing again that, like its neighbors, Costa Rica’s role as a transit country is practically impossible to avoid. “But what is new is the recognition as a trusted partner that Secretary of Security Kristi Noem gave us during her visit to Costa Rica,” he stressed. CNN reported that during a tour of the area surrounding San José, the capital, several citizens said they were not surprised that the United States included Costa Rica on its list of major drug transit countries. “It’s too obvious; the authorities can’t be everywhere. Years ago, it was quiet, but not now. Governments have to come together to counteract this,” said one of the citizens interviewed. What is most concerning, the media outlet highlighted, is that reports indicate shootouts between criminal groups are resulting in collateral victims. According to the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ), as of September 16, there have been 25 victims: 17 men and 8 women. From January to September 16, the OIJ recorded 614 homicides, of which 404 were related to score-settling and threats. Authorities attribute these crimes to clashes between criminal gangs fighting over drug sales territories. CNN noted that Costa Rica’s image as the “Switzerland of Central America” was forged in the second half of the 20th century, built on the consolidation of a welfare state, the expansion of social rights, the strength of democratic institutions, and remarkable leadership in environmental conservation. However, that image is now being tarnished by the escalation of violence linked to drug trafficking. The post CNN: Costa Rica Shifts From “Switzerland” to Drug Transit Route appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Government
Conservation

A Land Back Success for the Amah Mutsun Within Its Historical Territory

The tribe has been landless for more than 200 years. The post A Land Back Success for the Amah Mutsun Within Its Historical Territory appeared first on Bay Nature.

Later this year, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band—Indigenous people whose ancestors lived throughout the river valleys that stretch inland from Monterey Bay—will reclaim land within the tribe’s historical territory for the first time in more than two centuries. The tribe’s land trust will acquire 50-acres in the Gabilan foothills, near the confluence of the San Benito and Pajaro rivers, south of State Route 129 in San Benito County. Sloping gently from oak woodlands to the grassland valley below, the site lies in the southern reaches of Juristac, a region of the Amah Mutsun’s ancestral territory that encompasses up to 100 square miles, and contains many areas and objects considered sacred by the tribe.  (Courtesy of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust)“The property is within the greater Juristac landscape, which is a very sacred site,” said tribal chairman Valentin Lopez, who serves as president of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust. Lopez said the parcel will be preserved as open space where tribal members can practice land stewardship, such as native plant restoration, while maintaining the wildlife connectivity of the area. “It’s our responsibility to take care of Mother Earth and all living things,” he said. “So taking care of this area as a wildlife corridor is right in line with our cultural values and our directive from Creator.”  The 50-acre parcel is one of several properties the California tribe is working to acquire, or gain access rights to, after multiple waves of colonization since the 18th century left them without a land base. In the early 2000s, Amah Mutsun leaders organized efforts to restore the connections their ancestors had to their lands and culture prior to the Mission era. The Amah Mutsun Land Trust was established a decade ago to spearhead that work, and, in the time since, the nonprofit has expanded its land-stewardship programs while securing agreements for several cultural easements within the tribe’s traditional territory.  The organization’s efforts culminated in the recent land transfer, in which the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County donated the 50-acre property to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust. While the land trust owns a two-acre property in Bonny Dune—within the historical territory of Awaswas-speaking people, whose villages were concentrated in the north Monterey Bay-area—the transfer marks the Amah Mutsun’s first land acquisition within its traditional territory since the 1790s, when Spanish missionaries forcibly relocated the area’s Indigenous people to Mission San Juan Bautista. The property will be transferred from the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust this fall. (Ben Pease, PeasePress.com)A committee of tribal members named the place tooromakma hinse nii (pronounced toe row mock ma hēēn say knee), which, in the Mutsun language, means “bobcats wander here.” Along with lodging for Lynx rufus, the area known as Chittenden Pass serves as a critical wildlife corridor for mountain lions, American badger and California tiger salamander. Lopez said the land will provide members of the Native Stewardship Corps, a program of the land trust’s, an opportunity to perform conservation and native plant propagation work on their own lands, affording the young adults a greater level of cultural engagement. Before COVID-19 spurred a five-year hiatus, the Native stewards were performing work akin to a conventional conservation corps, Lopez said. “The purpose was also to restore relationships with the plants and the wildlife, and to take the time to show reciprocity in their work,” Lopez said. “There was a strong learning and cultural component for our stewards that wasn’t happening; they were just turning into a workforce.” The land was previously purchased by the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County in collaboration with the Trust for Public Land, Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, and Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) with the intent of eventually transferring the property to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust.  “This moment is transformational,” said Noelle Chambers, who was named as AMLT’s executive director in April. “The first decade of the organization was focused on building partnerships while re-learning and re-engaging Indigenous stewardship practices. After building our organizational capacity, we are positioned to move into the next phase of AMLT – acquiring lands for long-term Tribal stewardship.” Before taking her leadership role with the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, Chambers served as vice president of conservation for POST. Her work with the organization included collaborating with Chairman Lopez and AMLT on various conservation efforts in the area, she said, adding that it has been important for her as a non-Native person to learn about Indigenous perspectives on land stewardship and how to better integrate those practices in the conservation field. “It’s very exciting to have the ability to help the Amah Mutsun Land Trust acquire their first lands,” Chambers said. “It felt like a natural next step to use the skills I learned in my years at POST to work toward the return of land to the Mutsun people, and stewarding lands with Indigenous practices.” Chambers said the land trust is also exploring an opportunity to acquire a third property—almost 30-acres near Chitactac, the site of a Mutsun village west of present-day Gilroy. Situated close to Chitactac–Adams Heritage County Park, the property is bisected by a road and contains dozens of bedrock mortars used by Mutsun people to grind acorns and other foods.The organization is applying for grant funding to buy the land from the current landowner, she said. Bordered by Uvas Creek, the parcel currently holds agricultural fields that could one day be used to propagate native plants, Lopez said. (Along with the tribe’s planned restoration efforts at the San Benito Valley property, the tribe intends to create a native plant garden on a conservation easement atop Mt. Umunhum, a peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains.)  “Chitactac translates to ‘the place of the dance,’” Lopez said. “This was a very important ceremonial landscape and an extensive village site.” Gaining access rights to the Chitactac property would be another notable accomplishment for the California tribe, which was never provided a federal Indian reservation and is still seeking federal recognition. From left: Christy Fischer (Trust for Public Land), Valentin Lopez (Tribal Chair and AMLT Board President), Susan True (Community Foundation Santa Cruz County), and Athena Hernandez (Tribal member and former AMLT General Counsel) (Courtesy of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust)Despite the significant steps the Amah Mutsun have made toward legal land-ownership in the settler-colonial sense, Lopez said the land trust’s limited financial resources make large real estate acquisitions nearly impossible without support from larger conservation groups. One such organization is POST, which over the past year purchased two properties totaling 3,800 acres of rolling, open oak woodlands within the Juristac area. Located on the Sargent Ranch property west of Highway 101, the parcels were previously owned by the developer of a proposed sand-and-gravel mine that would operate on the remaining portion of the property. Bay Nature previously reported on Lopez and other tribal members’ vehement opposition to the quarry project, saying it would desecrate an area where Mutsun people once gathered for large ceremonies. Three years after the release of a preliminary EIR that drew thousands of public comments opposing the plan, the quarry proposal is currently on hold. It is unclear whether the project will move forward. Howard Justus, managing member of Sargent Ranch Partners, the San Diego-based company behind the project, declined to comment on the status of the proposal. Whatever the fate of the quarry, POST has signaled that the Sargent Ranch properties will be preserved in perpetuity, partly to maintain a crucial wildlife corridor at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The first purchase took place in October 2024, when the organization bought 1,340 acres for $15.65 million from an investor group that acquired the parcel in 2020. In a press release following the sale, POST stated that it would “retain ownership of the property until it can be transferred to a permanent steward.” In June, the environmental group purchased nearly 2,500 acres from Sargent Ranch Partners for a reported sum of $25 million. Neither POST nor AMLT disclosed any plans for a potential future land transfer at Sargent Ranch, though both have expressed a willingness to collaborate on future conservation efforts. But, now that nearly two-thirds of Sargent Ranch are owned by a conservation organization, Chambers acknowledged that POST’s purchases represent “a huge step” from AMLT’s perspective, adding “we’re really hoping POST is able to secure the rest of it.” Lopez said he is “very grateful” that the two properties will no longer be threatened by the development of luxury housing or golf courses. “We have a good relationship with POST,” he said. “So we’re hoping that we can find a way to have access and do some stewardship up there.” On the prospect of the Amah Mutsun someday owning some significant portion of Sargent Ranch, Lopez said “it would take a miracle” given the tribe’s limited resources. “Our prayers and our efforts aren’t for ownership,” he said. “Our prayers are for the protection of the land, and for the opportunity to restore it back to the important spiritual location that it was during our ancestors’ time.”

Nature
Conservation
Food

New York Eyes Record Climate Week Despite Trump Attacks on Green Agenda

By Simon Jessop, Katy Daigle and Kate Abnett(Reuters) - When Climate Week kicks off on Sunday in New York City, it will mark the event’s biggest...

By Simon Jessop, Katy Daigle and Kate Abnett(Reuters) - When Climate Week kicks off on Sunday in New York City, it will mark the event’s biggest year yet – with organizers reporting a record number of companies participating and more events than ever to attend.Almost no one had expected this response in a year that has seen the event’s host country – and the world’s wealthiest – set to a climate-denying agenda of boosting fossil fuels, rolling back pollution regulation and defunding U.S. science and climate action.Organizers of Climate Week even wondered, “Would people show up?” said Climate Group Chief Executive Officer Helen Clarkson.“Actually, there's huge enthusiasm for it," Clarkson said.Held alongside the U.N. General Assembly since 2009, this year’s Climate Week showcases more than 1,000 events – including presentations, panel discussions and swanky cocktail parties – hosted by environmental nonprofits, companies and philanthropists hoping to generate deals and discussion around protecting the planet.Last year’s Climate Week, by comparison, saw about 900 events.The boost in engagement has come “precisely as an antidote to the current U.S. administration’s attitude toward climate change,” former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told Reuters in an interview.Ten years ago, Figueres helped to craft the 2015 Paris Treaty under which countries agreed to hold the global temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius of the preindustrial average while aiming for a more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.But while national governments were pushing the climate agenda 10 years ago, Figueres said, the situation has since drastically changed.“The pull now is coming from stakeholders, from the real economy, from market forces that are pulling forward,” Figueres said.The Swiss carbon capture firm Climeworks has booked itself for nearly four times the number of events this year compared with last year, after the company in February raised $162 million toward improving its technology and growing the company, Co-Chief Executive Christoph Gebald said."We're continuing to see demand increase for carbon removals,” Gebald said. For Climate Week, "the level of interest from the most senior levels of companies is higher than ever.”Many major fossil fuel companies and some oil-dependent governments, however, have made moves toward reversing previous climate commitments.With the U.N. General Assembly meeting at the same time, Climate Week has developed into a major networking opportunity for CEOs and investors to rub elbows with visiting world leaders.The Assembly will take up the climate change issue on Wednesday, when Secretary-General Antonio Guterrez hosts a special “climate summit.” Many leaders are expected to announce new climate targets, or Nationally Determined Contributions.Neither the U.S. nor the European Union will be among them, despite having acted as leaders of the global climate agenda in the past. Instead, China, COP30 host Brazil and other fast-developing nations have taken a more active role in setting the agenda.China’s emissions-reduction plan could also be announced any day but may underwhelm on ambition, climate sources said.Meanwhile, the European Union is still struggling to reach agreement about how ambitious those targets should be – raising tensions about whether Brazil’s COP30 summit starting in only seven weeks will succeed."Historically, Europe has been in the front, both when it comes to taking ambitious targets ... also on the financial side of the international agreements," Danish climate minister Lars Aagaard said. But "Europe's role in the world has changed. We are 6% of global emissions. So therefore, there is also a call from our side that all parties to the Paris Agreement also should lift their responsibility." The region is nevertheless seeing fast progress in its energy transition, with the EU projecting a 54% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels - meaning member countries are nearly on track for the EU's previous 55% target for 2030.With leaders at November’s COP30 set to focus on boosting implementation of promises made in the past, experts say companies need to be in the conversation now.More than half of the world's biggest companies have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century, in line with the world's climate goal, according to data from the non-profit Net-Zero Tracker.But according to an analysis by the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a whopping 98% of companies have shared no plans for aligning their spending with those commitments."The challenge for New York Climate Week and beyond is to ensure that individuals and institutions come together in new ways to reimagine how we can cooperate against common threats," said Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation.A survey released on Thursday by the foundation that questioned 36,348 people worldwide estimated that most of the world’s population - a full 86% - believed international cooperation was crucial for climate action.(Reporting by Simon Jessop in London, Katy Daigle in Washington, D.C., and Kate Abnett in Brussels; Additional reporting by Axel Threlfall in London; Editing by Mark Porter)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

Climate
Energy
Pollution

Key oceans treaty crosses threshold to come into force

Sixty states have ratified a global treaty to protect the oceans - it will become law in January.

A global agreement designed to protect the world's oceans and reverse damage to marine life is set to become international law. The High Seas Treaty received its 60th ratification by Morocco on Friday, meaning that it will now take effect from January.The deal, which has been two decades in the making, will pave the way for international waters to be placed into marine protected areas.Environmentalists heralded the milestone as a "monumental achievement" and evidence that countries can work together for environmental protection."Covering more than two-thirds of the ocean, the agreement sets binding rules to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.Decades of overfishing, pollution from shipping and warming oceans from climate change have damaged life below the surface. In the latest assessment of marine species, nearly 10% were found to be at risk of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Three years ago countries agreed that 30% of the world's national and international waters - high seas - must be protected by 2030 to help depleted marine life recover.But protecting the high seas is challenging. No one country controls these waters and all nations have a right to ship and fish there. Currently just 1% of the high seas are protected, leaving marine life at risk from overexploitation. So, in 2023 countries signed the High Seas Treaty pledging to put 30% of these waters into Marine Protected Areas.But it was only able to enter force if more than 60 nations ratified it - meaning they agreed to be legally bound by it. With many nations requiring parliament approval, ratification can often take more than five years, Elizabeth Wilson, senior director for environmental policy at environmental NGO The Pews Charitable Trust, told the BBC at the UN Oceans Conference earlier this year. She said this was "record time". The UK introduced its bill for ratification to Parliament earlier this month. Kirsten Schuijt, director general of WWF International, hailed "a monumental achievement for ocean conservation" after the treaty threshold was reached. She added: "The High Seas Treaty will be a positive catalyst for collaboration across international waters and agreements and is a turning point for two-thirds of the world's ocean that lie beyond national jurisdiction."Mads Christensen, executive director of Greenpeace International, called it "a landmark moment" and "proof that countries can come together to protect our blue planet". "The era of exploitation and destruction must end. Our oceans can't wait and neither can we," he added.Once the treaty comes into force, countries will propose areas to be protected, and these will then be voted on by the countries that sign up to the treaty.Critics point out that countries will conduct their own environmental impact assessments (EIA) and make the final decision - although other countries can register concerns with the monitoring bodies.The ocean is crucial for the survival of all organisms on the planet. It is the largest ecosystem, is estimated to contribute $2.5 trillion to world economies, and provides up to 80% of the oxygen we breathe.

Climate
Conservation
Extinction

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