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40% Surge: Growing Nitrous Oxide Emissions Trigger Scientific Alarm

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Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Nitrous oxide emissions, largely from agriculture, have increased significantly from 1980 to 2020. Efforts to reduce these emissions are critical as there are no means to remove the gas from the atmosphere, posing risks to climate and environmental health.Over four decades, nitrous oxide emissions have risen sharply, driven mainly by agriculture. Without technologies to remove it, the focus must shift to reducing emissions to meet the Paris Agreement targets.Recent increases in emissions heighten concerns over their impact on global warming and environmental health.Nitrous Oxide EmissionsBetween 1980 and 2020, emissions of nitrous oxide—a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide or methane—continued unabated, with over 10 million metric tons released into the atmosphere in 2020 alone, predominantly due to farming practices. This finding comes from a new report by the Global Carbon Project. The report, “Global Nitrous Oxide Budget 2024,” led by researchers from Boston College and published today (June 11) in the journal Earth System Science Data, states that agricultural production was responsible for 74 percent of human-driven nitrous oxide emissions in the 2010s. These emissions were mainly due to the use of chemical fertilizers and animal waste on croplands.Like carbon dioxide and methane, the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide plays a significant role in global warming. While naturally occurring, it is also produced primarily by farming activity. Human-driven nitrous oxide emissions flowed unabated between 1980 and 2020, with more than 10-million metric tons released into the atmosphere in 2020, according to a new report led by Boston College researchers for the Global Carbon Project. Credit: Global Carbon ProjectUrgency in Reducing EmissionsIn an era when greenhouse gas emissions must decline to reduce global warming, in 2020 and 2021 nitrous oxide flowed into the atmosphere at a faster rate than at any other time in history, the international team of researchers reported. On Earth, excess nitrogen contributes to soil, water, and air pollution. In the atmosphere, it depletes the ozone layer, and exacerbates climate change.Agricultural emissions reached 8 million metric tons in 2020, a 67 percent increase from the 4.8 million metric tons released in 1980, according to the study, the most comprehensive study of global nitrous oxide emissions and sinks produced by a team of 58 researchers from 55 organizations in 15 countries.Call for Emission Reductions“Nitrous oxide emissions from human activities must decline in order to limit global temperature rise to 2°C as established by the Paris Agreement,” said the report’s lead author, Hanqin Tian, the Schiller Institute Professor of Global Sustainability at Boston College. “Reducing nitrous oxide emissions is the only solution since at this point no technologies exist that can remove nitrous oxide from the atmosphere.”The concentration of atmospheric nitrous oxide reached 336 parts per billion in 2022, a 25 percent increase over pre-industrial levels that far outpaces predictions previously developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Tian, director of the Center for Earth System Science and Global Sustainability at BC’s Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.Accelerating Emissions Amid Climate Goals“This emission increase is taking place when the global greenhouse gasses should be rapidly declining towards net zero emissions if we have any chances to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Tian, who coordinated the research on behalf of the Global Carbon Project.The world’s farmers used 60 million metric tons of commercial nitrogen fertilizers in 1980. By 2020, the sector used 107 million metric tons. That same year, animal manure contributed 101 million metric tons for a combined 2020 usage of 208 million metric tons.The unfettered increase in a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential approximately 300 times larger than carbon dioxide, presents dire consequences for the planet.Drawing on millions of nitrous oxide measurements taken during the past four decades on land and in the atmosphere, freshwater systems, and the ocean, Tian said the researchers have generated the most comprehensive assessment of global nitrous oxide to date.Global Emission InsightsThe researchers examined data collected around the world for all major economic activities that lead to nitrous oxide emissions and reported on 18 anthropogenic and natural sources and three absorbent “sinks” of global nitrous oxide.The top 10 nitrous oxide emission-producing countries are: China, India, the United States, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Canada, the researchers found.Some countries have seen success implementing policies and practices to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, according to the report. Emissions in China have slowed since the mid 2010s; as have emissions in Europe during the past few decades.In the U.S., agricultural emissions continue to creep up while industrial emissions have declined slightly, leaving overall emissions rather flat. Natural sources of nitrous oxide emissions from soil, fresh- and saltwater have remained stableEstablished in 2001, The Global Carbon Project analyzes the impact of human activity on greenhouse gas emissions and Earth systems, producing global budgets for the three dominant greenhouse gasses – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – that assess emissions and sinks to inform further research, policy, and international action.Agricultural Practices and Emission ReductionImproved agricultural practices that limit the use of nitrogen fertilizers and animal waste can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. Tian said there is a need for more frequent assessments so mitigation efforts can target high-emission regions and activities. An improved inventory of sources and sinks will be required if progress is going to be made toward the objectives of the Paris Agreement.“While there have been some successful nitrogen reduction initiatives in different regions, we found an acceleration in the rate of nitrous oxide accumulation in the atmosphere in this decade,” said Global Carbon Project Executive Director Josep Canadell, a research scientist at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. “The growth rates of atmospheric nitrous oxide in 2020 and 2021 were higher than any previous observed year and more than 30 percent higher than the average rate of increase in the previous decade.”Reference: “Global Nitrous Oxide Budget (1980-2020)” 11 June 2024, Earth System Science Data. DOI: 10.5194/essd-2023-401

Over four decades, nitrous oxide emissions have risen sharply, driven mainly by agriculture. Without technologies to remove it, the focus must shift to reducing emissions...

Over four decades, nitrous oxide emissions have risen sharply, driven mainly by agriculture. Without technologies to remove it, the focus must shift to reducing emissions to meet the Paris Agreement targets.

Recent increases in emissions heighten concerns over their impact on global warming and environmental health.

Nitrous Oxide Emissions

Between 1980 and 2020, emissions of nitrous oxide—a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide or methane—continued unabated, with over 10 million metric tons released into the atmosphere in 2020 alone, predominantly due to farming practices. This finding comes from a new report by the Global Carbon Project.

The report, “Global Nitrous Oxide Budget 2024,” led by researchers from Boston College and published today (June 11) in the journal Earth System Science Data, states that agricultural production was responsible for 74 percent of human-driven nitrous oxide emissions in the 2010s. These emissions were mainly due to the use of chemical fertilizers and animal waste on croplands.

Like carbon dioxide and methane, the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide plays a significant role in global warming. While naturally occurring, it is also produced primarily by farming activity. Human-driven nitrous oxide emissions flowed unabated between 1980 and 2020, with more than 10-million metric tons released into the atmosphere in 2020, according to a new report led by Boston College researchers for the Global Carbon Project. Credit: Global Carbon Project

Urgency in Reducing Emissions

In an era when greenhouse gas emissions must decline to reduce global warming, in 2020 and 2021 nitrous oxide flowed into the atmosphere at a faster rate than at any other time in history, the international team of researchers reported. On Earth, excess nitrogen contributes to soil, water, and air pollution. In the atmosphere, it depletes the ozone layer, and exacerbates climate change.

Agricultural emissions reached 8 million metric tons in 2020, a 67 percent increase from the 4.8 million metric tons released in 1980, according to the study, the most comprehensive study of global nitrous oxide emissions and sinks produced by a team of 58 researchers from 55 organizations in 15 countries.

Call for Emission Reductions

“Nitrous oxide emissions from human activities must decline in order to limit global temperature rise to 2°C as established by the Paris Agreement,” said the report’s lead author, Hanqin Tian, the Schiller Institute Professor of Global Sustainability at Boston College. “Reducing nitrous oxide emissions is the only solution since at this point no technologies exist that can remove nitrous oxide from the atmosphere.”

The concentration of atmospheric nitrous oxide reached 336 parts per billion in 2022, a 25 percent increase over pre-industrial levels that far outpaces predictions previously developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said Tian, director of the Center for Earth System Science and Global Sustainability at BC’s Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.

Accelerating Emissions Amid Climate Goals

“This emission increase is taking place when the global greenhouse gasses should be rapidly declining towards net zero emissions if we have any chances to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Tian, who coordinated the research on behalf of the Global Carbon Project.

The world’s farmers used 60 million metric tons of commercial nitrogen fertilizers in 1980. By 2020, the sector used 107 million metric tons. That same year, animal manure contributed 101 million metric tons for a combined 2020 usage of 208 million metric tons.

The unfettered increase in a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential approximately 300 times larger than carbon dioxide, presents dire consequences for the planet.

Drawing on millions of nitrous oxide measurements taken during the past four decades on land and in the atmosphere, freshwater systems, and the ocean, Tian said the researchers have generated the most comprehensive assessment of global nitrous oxide to date.

Global Emission Insights

The researchers examined data collected around the world for all major economic activities that lead to nitrous oxide emissions and reported on 18 anthropogenic and natural sources and three absorbent “sinks” of global nitrous oxide.

The top 10 nitrous oxide emission-producing countries are: China, India, the United States, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Canada, the researchers found.

Some countries have seen success implementing policies and practices to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, according to the report. Emissions in China have slowed since the mid 2010s; as have emissions in Europe during the past few decades.

In the U.S., agricultural emissions continue to creep up while industrial emissions have declined slightly, leaving overall emissions rather flat. Natural sources of nitrous oxide emissions from soil, fresh- and saltwater have remained stable

Established in 2001, The Global Carbon Project analyzes the impact of human activity on greenhouse gas emissions and Earth systems, producing global budgets for the three dominant greenhouse gasses – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – that assess emissions and sinks to inform further research, policy, and international action.

Agricultural Practices and Emission Reduction

Improved agricultural practices that limit the use of nitrogen fertilizers and animal waste can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. Tian said there is a need for more frequent assessments so mitigation efforts can target high-emission regions and activities. An improved inventory of sources and sinks will be required if progress is going to be made toward the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

“While there have been some successful nitrogen reduction initiatives in different regions, we found an acceleration in the rate of nitrous oxide accumulation in the atmosphere in this decade,” said Global Carbon Project Executive Director Josep Canadell, a research scientist at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. “The growth rates of atmospheric nitrous oxide in 2020 and 2021 were higher than any previous observed year and more than 30 percent higher than the average rate of increase in the previous decade.”

Reference: “Global Nitrous Oxide Budget (1980-2020)” 11 June 2024, Earth System Science Data.
DOI: 10.5194/essd-2023-401

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Defunding fungi: US’s living library of ‘vital ecosystem engineers’ is in danger of closing

These fungi boost plant growth and restore depleted ecosystems, but federal funding for a library housing them has been cut – and it may be forced to closeInside a large greenhouse at the University of Kansas, Professor Liz Koziol and Dr Terra Lubin tend rows of sudan grass in individual plastic pots. The roots of each straggly plant harbor a specific strain of invisible soil fungus. The shelves of a nearby cold room are stacked high with thousands of plastic bags and vials containing fungal spores harvested from these plants, then carefully preserved by the researchers.The samples in this seemingly unremarkable room are part of the International Collection of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (INVAM), the world’s largest living library of soil fungi. Four decades in the making, it could cease to exist within a year due to federal budget cuts. Continue reading...

Inside a large greenhouse at the University of Kansas, Professor Liz Koziol and Dr Terra Lubin tend rows of sudan grass in individual plastic pots. The roots of each straggly plant harbor a specific strain of invisible soil fungus. The shelves of a nearby cold room are stacked high with thousands of plastic bags and vials containing fungal spores harvested from these plants, then carefully preserved by the researchers.The samples in this seemingly unremarkable room are part of the International Collection of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (INVAM), the world’s largest living library of soil fungi. Four decades in the making, it could cease to exist within a year due to federal budget cuts.For leading mycologist Toby Kiers, this would be catastrophic. “INVAM represents a library of hundreds of millions of years of evolution,” said Kiers, executive director of the Society for Protection of Underground Networks (Spun). “Ending INVAM for scientists is like closing the Louvre for artists.”The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi conserved by INVAM are symbiotic organisms that support the growth of 70% of land plant species across all ecosystems. In exchange for sugars and fats, they provide plants with vital nutrients – phosphorus, nitrogen, trace metals – and buffer them against drought, disease and other stressors. They also represent a substantial underground sink for carbon dioxide. INVAM maintains living spores of more than 900 distinct fungal strains collected from six continents. It’s an irreplaceable hub for mycological research worldwide – but these fungi also have practical power: restoring degraded ecosystems, rebuilding damaged soils and slashing artificial fertilizer use. They are essential tools for growing food and undoing the environmental harm caused by agriculture.Established in 1985, INVAM has relied on successive federal grants for its entire existence. Its latest US National Science Foundation (NSF) funding ended in May. As curator and professor Jim Bever and team prepare a new funding proposal, the outlook is ominous: the Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would slash NSF funding by 57% and make it even more difficult to win the remaining funds.Without another grant, Bever estimates the collection can limp along for perhaps another year. 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Excessive synthetic fertilizer application causes plants to break symbiotic ties, starving fungi. Ploughing destroys their underground networks. As a result, AM fungi often vanish entirely from cultivated land, “We can barely even find the DNA [of AM fungi] in some of the soils that have been in intensive agricultural production,” said leading fungal ecologist Matthias Rillig of Freie Universität Berlin.This matters because AM fungi disperse slowly – they produce no above-ground fruiting bodies to scatter spores on the wind. 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This federal scheme has already enlisted more than 20m acres, supporting landowners to transition marginal farmland into native grassland and woodland to improve soil health, retain water and store carbon. “The return on that investment would be much greater if there was a national policy to reinoculate with native mycorrhizal fungi,” he said.Beyond habitat restoration, and despite the current failure of most commercial fungal biofertilizers, AM fungi can be useful in mainstream agriculture. In 2016, Koziol founded MycoBloom to produce high-quality preparations of old-growth prairie fungus spores. In addition to restoration practitioners, customers report promising results in vineyards, orange orchards, and high-value organic crops such as peppers and tomatoes.The effects of AM fungi are likely to be strongest in perennial crops, including new grains like Kernza, whose roots remain in the ground long enough for stable symbiosis to establish. 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By addressing the unique vulnerabilities survivors face, Safety Compass offers support and education that helps them build a safer future.“It’s such a beautiful thing to watch this survivor go from like … ‘There’s nothing out there’ to like that spark of ‘Actually maybe there’s another option’ to five to 10 years down the road where their life is completely changed,” said Chelsey Passon, a trafficking survivor who is now the communications manager for the organization. “It’s truly a privilege to be able to hear someone’s story and witness it and to be able to sit there and say, ‘Hey … you don’t have to navigate this alone.’”Read the story.Kassandra Ball, walking in Ashland's Lithia Park on Nov. 9, is an English and Spanish speaker from Laredo, Texas, with a master's degree from Oregon Health & Science University, who sees patients at La Clinica's Central Point Health Center.Bob Palermini, www.palermini.comSouthern Oregon Alliance of PhysiciansThe Southern Oregon Alliance of Physicians is a dedicated group of healthcare professionals committed to improving the health and well-being of communities in southern Oregon. The alliance focuses on fostering collaboration among physicians and healthcare providers to enhance patient care and address local health challenges. By working together, they aim to share resources, knowledge and best practices, ensuring that everyone in the region has access to quality healthcare.Dan Weiner, a family medicine physician and chief medical officer of Rogue Community Health’s five clinics, helped found SOAPP and continues to volunteer. “We believe access to high quality healthcare is a big component of a thriving community,” Weiner said, “and SOAPP allows us to partner with others who share that vision.”Read the story.Students from four different elementary schools in the Canby School District partake in the High Dose Tutoring offered by Todos Juntos.Yesenia Amaro | The Oregonian/OregonLiveTodos JuntosTodos Juntos strengthens families and communities by offering a variety of support programs aimed at empowering youth and families. The nonprofit’s mission focuses on creating connections that inspire and educate, like the new initiative High Dose Tutoring, offered free of charge for students recommended by four schools in the Canby School District.“Our focus is to increase their reading comprehension because a lot of them are struggling,” said Fatima López, community liaison for Todos Juntos at the Canby School District, where programming is focused on children in second and third grade. “Those two grades just make more sense because those are the ones that need a little bit more support.”Read the story.Deborah Marion picks up her CSA share at Zenger Farm in southeast Portland with her three kids, who enjoy the fall bounty from the nonprofit urban farm. Jamie Hale/The OregonianZenger FarmZenger Farm is an urban farm dedicated to making good food accessible to everyone while promoting sustainable practices and community development. The farm’s mission revolves around educating the public about food systems and environmental stewardship. And the farm offers a community-supported agriculture program the allows people to buy produce directly from farms with monthly payments for “shares” of the crop.“It’s not just my kids taking their space,” said Deborah Marion, who has been a member of the farm’s CSA for about a decade. “The farmers are so kind and welcoming to them and make them feel this sense of home and belonging here.”Read the story.

Agriculture

Culture

Education

Brown bears in central Italy are becoming less aggressive

As Apennine brown bears learned to co-exist with humans in central Italy, they evolved to become smaller and less aggressive, according to a new DNA study. The post Brown bears in central Italy are becoming less aggressive first appeared on EarthSky.

According to a new study, Apennine brown bears have become less aggressive and smaller in size after a long history of close proximity to humans. Image via Marco Tersigni/ Wikipedia (CC BY 2.0). Brown bears in central Italy are becoming less aggressive For generations, brown bears in central Italy have adjusted their behavior to survive in a landscape increasingly dominated by humans. Now, an international team of researchers led by the University of Ferrara has revealed that living in close quarters with villages and human activity has led to genetic changes in the bears. They said on December 15, 2025, that the brown bears today are less aggressive and physically smaller than their ancestors. The DNA studies also show that this isolated and endangered population of bears has less diversity in its genetic makeup and higher rates of inbreeding. The scientists published their peer-reviewed study in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution on December 15, 2025. The research focuses on Apennine brown bears (Ursus arctos marsicanus), which live exclusively in central Italy. Apennine brown bears shaped by history The Apennine brown bears form a small and isolated population with a long history of close proximity to human communities. Previous research indicates this population split from other European brown bears between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago. And it has remained isolated since Roman times. Over the centuries, human presence has had a direct impact on the habitat of these bears. The expansion of agriculture, forest clearing and the growth of settlements reduced and fragmented forests. This limited the available space for bears, affecting their ability to find food and reproduce. According to the authors, these landscape transformations were decisive in shaping the population’s history of isolation. Co-lead author Andrea Benazzo of the University of Ferrara said: One of the main factors driving isolation and decline was probably deforestation associated with the expansion of agriculture and increasing human density in central Italy. Apennine brown bears became isolated following human expansion. Consequently, their genetic diversity has reduced and rate of inbreeding has increased. Image via Bruno D’Amicis/ Molecular Biology and Evolution/ EurekAlert! A look at the bears’ DNA To understand how the bears changed over time, researchers analyzed their DNA: the set of genetic instructions that influence body development and certain behaviors. To do this, the team created a high-quality “reference genome” for the Apennine brown bear. It serves as a detailed map of its genetic material. Plus, it allows researchers to detect differences between individuals and populations. So scientists sequenced the DNA of several bears from this population and compared it with DNA from a much larger population of brown bears in Slovakia. They also compared the Italian bears’ DNA with previously published genomes from North American bears. This comparison made it possible to identify recent genetic changes and distinguish which traits are unique to Apennine brown bears. Genomic analyses show that – due to their isolation and small population size – Apennine brown bears exhibit high levels of inbreeding. Consequently, they have less genetic diversity, in contrast to other brown bear populations. Inbreeding occurs when related individuals reproduce with one another, a common situation in small and isolated populations. Unfortunately, inbreeding can increase the risk of health problems and reduce the ability to adapt to environmental changes. Human pressure as an adaptive force For generations, human presence in the Apennine forests exerted lethal pressure on the bear population. Larger and more aggressive individuals were more likely to come into conflict with people. So they were more frequently hunted or eliminated. Over time, this selective hunting drastically reduced the presence of such bears, favoring the survival and reproduction of smaller, less aggressive individuals. And so it resulted in a population with distinctive physical and behavioral traits. The study detected clear signs of selection in genes related to behavior, indicating that this systematic removal left a genetic imprint. According to co-lead author Giulia Fabbri of the University of Ferrara: The removal or displacement of more aggressive bears by humans likely drove the emergence of less conflict-prone individuals, reflecting how human interaction can shape the behavior of a species. Throughout their history, the larger, more aggressive bears were the targets of hunters. Thus, these bears evolved to be smaller and less aggressive. And over time, the Apennine bear population has exhibited distinctive physical and behavioral traits. Image via Mykola Pokalyuk/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Conserving a genetically unique population The study shows human presence had contrasting effects on Apennine bears. On the one hand, human pressure favored traits that reduce conflict with people, such as less aggressive behavior and smaller body size. On the other hand, the population experienced a demographic decline and genetic erosion, increasing its vulnerability to extinction. The researchers emphasize that populations heavily affected by human activities still harbor unique genetic variants that deserve protection. Giorgio Bertorelle, professor of genetics at the University of Ferrara, explained: Even populations that have been strongly affected by human activities may harbor unique genetic variants that should be protected, for example by avoiding their dilution through the introduction of individuals from other regions. These genetic adaptations are valuable and should be taken into account when planning conservation strategies to preserve the population’s genetic identity. Apennine brown bears at risk of isolation and inbreeding At the same time, the population also faces risks stemming from its isolation and small size, particularly inbreeding. Reproduction between related individuals can increase the expression of harmful recessive genes. And that reduces the overall health and adaptive capacity in Apennine brown bears. In this sense, inbreeding is an important factor to consider when assessing the population’s long-term viability. However, the authors note that in populations that have remained small for long periods, some highly deleterious mutations might have been eliminated by natural selection, which does not remove the risk but does moderate its impact. This case illustrates one of the classic dilemmas of conservation biology: whether to intervene to increase genetic variability and reduce the risks of inbreeding, or to preserve a genetically singular population that has developed unique adaptations to its environment. Neither option is risk-free, and conservation decisions must balance long-term genetic health with the preservation of an irreplaceable evolutionary identity. Isolation increases inbreeding risk in Apennine brown bears, potentially reducing population health. This presents conservationists a difficult choice between genetic rescue and preserving a unique lineage. Image via Leonio/ Wikipedia (CC BY 3.0). Bottom line: As Apennine brown bears learned to co-exist with humans in central Italy, they evolved to become smaller and less aggressive, according to a new DNA study. Source: Molecular Biology and Evolution: Coexisting With Humans: Genomic and Behavioral Consequences in a Small and Isolated Bear Population Via EurekAlert! Read more: Polar bears have unique ice-repelling furThe post Brown bears in central Italy are becoming less aggressive first appeared on EarthSky.

Agriculture

Conservation

Extinction

Mass Layoffs Overshadow Guinea's Simandou Mega Mine as Output Accelerates

By Clara Denina and Maxwell Akalaare AdombilaSIMANDOU, Guinea, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Guinea's Simandou mega mining project, promoted by the military...

By Clara Denina and Maxwell Akalaare AdombilaSIMANDOU, Guinea, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Guinea's Simandou mega mining project, promoted by the military government as a symbol of the country's economic transformation, ‌is laying off thousands of workers just as it begins exporting iron ore after decades of delays ‌and corruption scandals.Simandou was officially launched with pomp and a public holiday in November, ahead of elections on December 28, the first since the military coup in 2021 that brought Mamady Doumbouya to power.The junta leader is standing for president and political analysts say he is the favourite to win, meaning he could be in power for another seven years.Even without Simandou, the world's largest untapped reserve of iron ore, Guinea is the world's biggest exporter of bauxite, used to make aluminium. Its mining wealth, however, has failed to transform for the better the lives of many of ‍its people.World Bank data published in 2025 showed more than half the population lived in poverty.Reuters interviewed a dozen workers and former employees, as well as some senior company sources. Asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, they said the process of sacking thousands of workers had begun and that the impact was likely to be more severe than in the case of comparable mining projects.It is a bitter disappointment for those who hoped their lives ⁠would be improved for the long term by Simandou's ambitions to produce around 120 million metric tons of iron ore annually, or around 7% of global demand.EMPLOYMENT PEAKED AT MORE THAN 60,000Employment from Simandou peaked at over 60,000 jobs in 2024 and 2025, companies and government sources told Reuters, as contractors raced to meet deadlines set by Guinea's military rulers to try to fast-track iron ore exports after nearly three decades of delay. Fewer than 15,000 people will be needed to run the mines, the ports, and the 670 kilometre (416-mile) railway specially built to allow export from the landlocked project.The project is run by two consortia – one led by Rio Tinto and the other by the Winning Consortium Simandou, or WCS, comprising mostly Chinese companies. The way the work has been organised means the workforce reduction is extreme.One executive involved said the railway was "a simultaneous spread project," meaning every section was built at the same time, the labour ‌force was ramped up to peak construction, "then falls off a cliff because everything finishes".WCS, which manages almost all of the railway via more than a dozen subcontractors, did not respond to requests for comment on its workforce.Rio Tinto, through a joint venture Rio Tinto-Simfer, is in charge of two ‌mine blocks, 78 kilometres of rail connecting them to the main ‍rail network and transshipment facilities at the new port on Guinea's Atlantic coast. ⁠In all, it has provided employment for around 25,000 workers, 82% of them Guinean, over the construction phase.For the operational phase, a spokesperson for Rio Tinto said the Simfer venture was expected to require a workforce of about 6,000 to work in the mine and at a transshipment vessel terminal at the port. The mine and rail construction is scheduled to be completed next year, while work at the port will continue through 2027, the spokesperson said.Chris Aitchison, managing director at Rio Tinto-Simfer, said he was concerned about the risks raised by sudden job losses, which the industry refers to as demobilisation."It's the what's next?" he said. "In other jurisdictions when we demobilise there's a pathway for employees or people that have been engaged in execution to move to other projects."In comparable projects, such as Mongolia's Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, for example, more diversified economies meant former mining employees had other job options.RISK OF SOCIAL UNREST AND ACCIDENTSThe workforce sources said the job-cutting had begun. In Dantilia, a hub in the Faranah region near Sierra Leone's border, 8,000 of 10,000 workers have lost their jobs the last three months. The other 2,000 have been told their jobs will end in the coming months. In Kamara, part of the same district, around 1,500 workers have already been dismissed, the workers said. "We are waiting in hope but for now they don't have any solutions, and they haven't promised anything yet," a pick-up driver for the Winning Consortium Simandou told Reuters, asking not to be named. "There is no other job."Three Western company sources said concern was mounting that reduced staffing could increase the risk of accidents, as well as of social unrest. They said they were worried about the likelihood of community protests that could take the form of blockades along the Simandou railway, where trains have already killed cattle, angering local residents who depend on their livestock.Risk assessments carried out by the consortia in the last six months flagged the places where people or livestock could stray onto tracks and derail trains, prompting the construction of fencing that the original design did not provide for, company sources said.In March, Reuters reported that a dozen workers had died in accidents during Simandou's railway construction between June 2023 and November 2024. In addition, at least five local residents were killed in traffic accidents involving vehicles from the works.Rio Tinto and WCS reported a further five worker deaths. Mines minister Bouna Sylla said the government was strict with the partners on safety and environmental safeguards.GOVERNMENT'S PROMISES OF FUTURE EMPLOYMENTGuinea's limited infrastructure, narrow skill base, and lack of income buffers magnify the impact of the sudden loss of jobs.Speaking to media in the days ahead of Simandou's official launch on November 11, Sylla acknowledged the layoffs would be painful."It's not easy for people who've been earning a salary, waking up early for work every day, to suddenly lose it," Sylla said. He outlined government plans for new infrastructure projects, including roads, refineries and power plants, but he did not give any timing.The official launch at the new export port at Morebaya on Guinea's Atlantic coast was resolutely upbeat, with brass bands, honour guards, traditional dancers and visiting dignitaries. Doumbouya looked on, dressed in a white Guinean boubou tunic.In an attempt to provide thousands of future jobs, Guinea's military government has touted "Simandou 2040" as a 15-year strategy to transform the country into a diversified economy, based on investment in agriculture, education, transport, technology, finance and health for the entire population.The government holds a 15% stake in Simandou and the plan's estimated $200 billion cost would be partly funded by mining revenues, although it has said the bulk should come from private capital.Sylla said Guinea's infrastructure agency the Administration et Contrôle des Grands Projets was working on feasibility studies. The government also commissioned a KPMG report on re-employment programmes, which will be published after the elections, two sources said.KPMG did not respond to a request for comment. The infrastructure agency said the plans included 3,000 kilometres of new highways to be developed over 15 years.THE LONG WAIT FOR PROSPERITYBut nearly 30 years after Rio started exploring the deposit, the question of whether Simandou can deliver prosperity for most of Guinea is unanswered.The IMF in its "Selected issues" paper on Guinea's economy, published in May  2024, modelled the macroeconomic effects of Simandou.It found it could boost the country's real GDP by 26% by 2030, but it also said the reduction in poverty could be minimal at just 0.6 percentage points without active policies to manage the transition.The project's impact in increasing the number of skilled workers could even lead "to worsening of inequality, especially in rural areas," it said.(Reporting by Clara Denina and Maxwell Adombila Akalaare; editing by Barbara Lewis)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.Photos You Should See – December 2025

Agriculture

Education

Government

America is richer than ever. Why is it so unhappy?

Ordinary Americans today enjoy a living standard that would have awed kings for most of human history. We live in homes conditioned to our ideal temperature in any season; drive vehicles that pack the power of 250 horses into a 100-square-foot metal frame; carry six-ounce rectangles that offer instant access to virtually any loved one, book, song, fact, or pornography; inhale gases that take the pain out of any surgery; replace our worn-out hips with titanium; glide 40,000 feet above the Earth in pressurized aluminum tubes; and eat ground beef wrapped in tacos made of Doritos. But we don’t seem that jazzed about it. Key takeaways • Wealthy nations have been getting richer — without getting happier — for decades, according to some studies. • Consumerism often functions like a zero-sum status competition, in which people must buy more stuff just to retain their social rank (aka “keep up with the Joneses”). • Given this, some environmentalists argue that we can shrink wealthy economies without sacrificing human well-being. But this is mistaken. Since 1996, America’s median household income (adjusted for inflation) has risen by 26 percent, enabling us to afford more flights, smartphones, and Gordita Supremes than ever before. And yet, over that same period, the share of Americans who described themselves as “not too happy” in the General Social Survey rose by 9 percentage points, while the segment calling themselves “very happy” shrank by more than 9.4 points. Meanwhile, measures of Americans’ economic confidence and consumer sentiment both declined. And in 2025, the percentage of Americans who were “very satisfied” with their personal lives hit an all-time low in Gallup’s polling. This disconnect between America’s rising prosperity and sagging spirits has grown more conspicuous in recent years. Since the middle of 2023 — when inflation returned to normal levels following the post-pandemic price spike — Americans’ real wages and net worths have ticked up. But the public’s mood has scarcely improved. Pundits dubbed this development “the vibecession” and proffered myriad plausible explanations for its emergence (people still haven’t adjusted psychologically to the new price level; housing remains unaffordable; living through a mass death event is a real bummer; Covid-19 turned too many of us into hermits; the kids need to get off their dang phones, and so on). Yet to some economists and social theorists, the “vibecession” is less a new phenomenon than the wealthy world’s default condition. In their account, people in developed countries have been getting richer — without getting happier — for more than half a century. That might seem bleak. For anti-growth environmentalists, however, it is actually a source of hope. The “degrowth” movement believes that humanity is rapidly exhausting the Earth’s resources. Thus, to prevent ecological collapse — without condemning the global poor to permanent penury — the movement has called on rich countries to throttle their use of energy and material resources. If economic growth had been making wealthy nations happier over the past 50 years, this would be a tall order. In that scenario, there would be a tragic conflict between the near-term well-being of the “first world” and the sustainability of the planet’s ecosystems. But this conflict is illusory, according to degrowth proponents like the philosopher Tim Jackson and the anthropologist Jason Hickel. In their view, the wealthy world has been burning vast resources on a zero-sum status competition — in which workers must perpetually increase their consumption just to “keep up with the Joneses.” By abandoning such spiritually corrosive consumerism — and embracing more egalitarian and communal ways of life — rich countries can downsize their economies and uplift their people simultaneously. Some aspects of this narrative are plausible. Growth may yield diminishing returns to well-being, and status concerns do loom larger in rich societies. But it does not follow that wealthy nations can dramatically reduce economic production without harming their residents’ welfare. Optimizing the American economy for human happiness will require changing what we produce — but it almost certainly won’t entail producing less. Can money buy happiness — or only rent it? At first brush, the research on money and happiness can look puzzling. On the one hand, within countries, income and well-being are highly correlated: The larger a person’s paycheck, the happier they tend to be. And this same relationship holds between countries as well — nations with higher incomes report greater well-being than those with lower ones. When one looks at happiness trends in rich countries over time, however, the correlation between income and happiness weakens — or, in some studies, disappears. There is a popular explanation for these paradoxical findings: Once people are already affluent, their sense of material well-being is determined less by their absolute living standard than by their relative position in a country’s economic hierarchy. After all, status is a zero-sum game: One person can’t be in the “upper” middle-class unless someone else is in the lower one. In this account, there are some things that humans strongly desire for their own sake, such as food, shelter, clothing, water, medical care, sanitation, and a little entertainment. When a person ceases to be too poor to afford these goods, she tends to become happier as a direct result of her higher living standard: A well-fed person is typically more content than a malnourished one, irrespective of their society’s prevailing norms or their own degree of social status. By contrast, the desire to upgrade from a 55-inch TV to a 75-inch one, or from a Toyota to a Lexus, or from an iPhone 16 to an iPhone 17 isn’t etched that deeply into the human heart. An affluent American’s longing for the latter objects is socially contingent. His current TV would not seem small if he had not seen his brother-in-law’s 75-inch, 8K smart TV at Thanksgiving. When this hypothetical American — let’s call him Tim — gets a raise and buys a new home theater, car, and smartphone, his sense of well-being might increase. But this gain in happiness will have less to do with the intrinsic qualities of his new consumer items than with the shrinking gap between his living standard and that of his wealthier peers. It’s the alleviation of relative deprivation — rather than the absolute variety — that accounts for the bulk of his newfound contentment. That’s the theory, anyway. And some studies lend it credence. For example, in a 2023 paper, researchers at the University of California Riverside examined surveys that asked the same Americans about their incomes and self-reported well-being at multiple points in time. They found that respondents tended to report greater happiness when their relative income increased — which is to say, when they ascended to a higher percentile of the income distribution — even if their absolute income had barely changed. By contrast, when a respondent saw their earnings rise while their position in the socioeconomic hierarchy stagnated or fell, they typically became no happier. If money can buy Americans happiness — but only by purchasing them higher status — then the data on growth and well-being makes sense: In a rich society, we’d expect people with higher incomes to be happier than those with low ones, since the former enjoy greater relative status. But as that nation gets wealthier over time, we wouldn’t expect its average happiness to budge. After all, status is a zero-sum game: One person can’t be in the “upper” middle-class unless someone else is in the lower one. Tim’s new TV might make him feel better about his social rank. But when his cousin Rick comes over to watch the Super Bowl, that giant Samsung could make him feel worse about his economic position, as now his own 42-inch Roku TV may seem pathetically small. The case for degrowth It isn’t hard to see why this theory appeals to many environmentalists. If Americans are consuming more and more resources — just to keep up in a zero-sum status game — then the human costs of degrowth are negligible. From this vantage point, the rich world’s middle classes are effectively locked in a fruitless arms race: Tim works a little harder to buy nicer things than his cousin Rick, in order to improve his relative status and sense of well-being. Then Rick works a little harder so that he can buy the same things as Tim. Now, both are back to the same status position they started with — but had to perform more labor just to get there. Degrowthers see this basic process playing out at a national scale. And they insist that it isn’t inevitable; humans aren’t innately programmed to jockey endlessly for position. Rather, degrowthers contend that corporate and political elites perpetuate this culture of competitive consumption. In Jackson’s telling, it requires the combined propagandizing of “politicians and policy-makers and bankers and financiers and advertisers” just to sustain the public’s appetite for more stuff. If we embraced a less materialistic politics and more egalitarian economic system, the thinking goes, then we could end this lose-lose cycle of competitive consumption. In such a world, people could enjoy more leisure time without worrying about falling behind “the Joneses.” And rich countries could produce more of the things that actually improve well-being — such as health care, education, and clean energy — while consuming fewer material resources overall, thereby remaining within ecological limits. In a well-planned, post-capitalist economy, in other words, less could truly be more. This might be all wrong It’s possible, however, that the foundational assumption of this entire narrative — and, to an extent, this article — is wrong: Some studies suggest that higher economic growth is associated with greater happiness over time, even when looking at rich countries. Meanwhile, many analysts question whether well-being surveys are a reliable gauge of national happiness. An American in 1980 — and an equally happy American in 2025 — may answer poll questions differently, simply as a result of shifting cultural norms. (We have arguably seen this phenomenon in survey research about mental illness, where destigmatization and broadening conceptions of “anxiety” and “depression” may have boosted rates of self-reported psychological distress in recent years). If these were the only problems with degrowthers’ argument, it might be salvageable. Some studies cut against their interpretation of well-being trends. But some support it. One can therefore reasonably believe that rich countries haven’t been getting happier as their economies have grown. But it does not follow that wealthy nations can dramatically shrink their economies, at no cost to their people’s well-being. When it comes to growth, size matters For one thing, this conclusion requires wildly overreading what the well-being data actually tell us. America is plausibly no happier today than it was in 1996, despite significant economic growth. But a lot of bad things have happened in the United States over the past 30 years, many of which aren’t obviously a function of rising GDP — including the opioid epidemic, 9/11, deepening political polarization, a world-historic pandemic, and rising rates of social isolation, among many other things. It’s possible then that economic growth increased Americans’ well-being over the past three decades — but that this benefit was simply outweighed by other, adverse social trends. Indeed, one interpretation of the data on national happiness is that the magnitude of growth matters. The typical American household earns about 26 percent more today than it did in 1996. By contrast, that modern US household earns over 2,000 percent more than a typical family in Bangladesh. And while today’s median American isn’t much happier than her slightly poorer predecessor was in the 1990s, the former has much higher life satisfaction than her dramatically poorer Bangladeshi counterpart, according to the World Values Survey. Perhaps, modest GDP gains don’t reliably increase well-being in rich countries. But it doesn’t follow that no amount of economic growth can make an already-rich country happier. A dollar lost is a dollar mourned For the sake of argument, however, let’s stipulate that increasing a wealthy nation’s income doesn’t improve its well-being. That still would not mean that you can shrink a rich country’s income without diminishing its happiness. As decades of behavioral research has shown, people are “loss-averse” — which means they react more strongly to losses than to equivalent gains. For this reason, even if Americans derived little well-being from recent economic growth, they might still become unhappier were their incomes to abruptly drop. And, in fact, this is exactly what happened amid the post-Covid surge in inflation. During that period, Americans suddenly found themselves unable to afford as many goods and services as they used to, since their real wages declined. At the same time, income inequality actually fell. Thus, by one metric, the median US worker’s relative position actually improved. Yet Americans’ economic confidence and life satisfaction plunged, anyway. This suggests that losing absolute income makes Americans unhappier, even if they don’t simultaneously fall down the economic ladder. Further, the public’s discontent on this front can scarcely be attributed to political elites’ consumerist propaganda. To the contrary, the Biden administration tried to persuade Americans that the inflationary economy was fine. Three years later, when Americans remained dissatisfied with how much stuff they could afford to buy, the Trump White House actually implored them to care less about consumption. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared in March that “access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” while Trump has told Americans, “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don’t need 37 dolls.” Nevertheless, Americans’ desire for cheaper goods persisted. To be sure, this does not prove that Americans wouldn’t be happier under degrowth socialism. Hickel and Jackson never argued that people could enjoy greater well-being on lower incomes in the existing economic system, only that this would be true in an egalitarian, post-growth economic order. My point is that this argument rests on pure speculation; data on happiness and growth in non-imaginary nations doesn’t actually validate degrowthers’ intuition. It’s impossible to know with certainty how people would think and feel in economic circumstances that humanity has never witnessed. But we do know that, to date, no country has ever grown happier while enduring a large and sustained decline in material consumption. There are no MRIs without mineral mines The most fundamental problem with the degrowth narrative, however, is that it does not work on its own terms. An economy tailored to Americans’ true needs would produce more things that extend life, reduce suffering, and mitigate loneliness — and fewer that induce addiction and status anxiety. Hickel and Jackson recognize that increasing some forms of production improves well-being, even in rich societies. No one thinks that Americans purchase cancer screenings or defibrillators or dialysis merely to “keep up with the Joneses.” As long as illness exists, boosting medical output and innovation is likely to make people better off. And much the same can be said of other goods and services that save lives or alleviate physical suffering, such as clean energy technologies that curb air pollution or self-driving cars that reduce traffic deaths. This undercuts the notion that rich countries can abandon growth without sacrificing well-being. Perhaps, America’s specific approach to expanding GDP hasn’t been making people happier. But if we produced fewer things that plausibly reduce welfare (such as social media platforms and sports betting apps) and more that increase it (such as solar panels or Ozempic), surely we could make ourselves better off than we would be in a drastically smaller economy. Hickel tries to preempt this objection. In his book, Less Is More, he suggests that degrowth really just means deciding “what kinds of things we want to grow (sectors like clean energy, public health care, essential services, regenerative agriculture — you name it), and what sectors need to radically degrow (things like fossil fuels, private jets, arms and SUVs).” This proposal raises some obvious political challenges (by all appearances, the American public wants the SUV sector to grow). But bracketing the whole “how do we get everyone on-board with eco-communism?” question, the more basic issue is that Hickel’s vision almost certainly cannot work, purely as a technical matter. In his view, the United States must reduce its use of material resources — metals, minerals, land, fossil fuels, timber, crops, cement, and the like — by 75 percent. This is plainly incompatible with maximizing Americans’ welfare, even if one went further than Hickel — and stipulated that only the health care sector enhances well-being. Degrowthers often refer to the medical industry as though it were a resource-light, service sector composed mostly of people, buildings, and a few machines. And this is how doctors’ offices can sometimes appear. Yet every encounter with a clinician is the tip of a vast industrial iceberg. A single MRI machine requires superconducting magnets made of niobium-titanium alloys, liquid helium produced through natural gas extraction, high-purity copper wiring, cryogenic refrigeration systems, rare earth elements, and massive amounts of electricity, among other inputs. Drug production, meanwhile, frequently demands starter molecules extracted from oil or natural gas, large volumes of chemical solvents, climate-controlled reactors, drying ovens, and myriad other energy-intensive spaces and components. Dialysis consumes hundreds of liters of ultrapure water per session and myriad single-use plastics. Thus, the idea that we can grow the health care sector — while slashing our economy’s resource use by 50 percent — is far-fetched on its face. And it becomes all the more implausible when one considers the basic mechanics of industrial innovation and supply chains. In his book, Hickel suggests that gutting frivolous consumer industries will free up enough resources to simultaneously grow the healthcare sector and shrink America’s material footprint. But this ignores medical technology’s dependence on ordinary consumer markets. To appreciate that dependence, consider chipmaking. Developing advanced semiconductors entailed the construction of hundreds of fabrication facilities worldwide, each costing up to $20 billion; the formation of dense networks of suppliers for tools, chemicals, and ultrapure materials; and many years of learning by doing. Hospitals need chips to power various devices. But the medical sector still accounts for a tiny fraction of semiconductor sales. It was demand for smartphones, personal computers, and other consumer electronics that enabled the chip industry to absorb the exorbitant costs of its growth and innovation. And absent that innovation, modern medical imaging would be less accurate and more people would perish from undetected infirmities. One can tell a similar story about lithium-ion batteries, which corporate labs perfected to power camcorders and cellphones — but which are now indispensable to both modern medicine and the green energy transition. In other words, without large and diverse markets for consumer novelties, the supply chains and technical know-how required for more essential products would not exist. It’s therefore implausible that rich countries could radically contract consumer markets — to the point that resource use falls by 75 percent — and still sustain the health care and energy technologies that Hickel admires, much less, improve upon them. More is more Of course, none of this would matter much if degrowthers’ apocalyptic environmental assumptions were correct. If economic growth is physically unsustainable — and humanity must choose between gradually degrowing the global economy or having it chaotically contract amid ecological collapse — then the former is clearly preferable. I think degrowthers’ catastrophism is unfounded (although the perils of climate change are quite real). But even if we are indeed racing toward oblivion, that still would not make Hickel and Jackson’s claims about growth and happiness correct. Perhaps, rich countries need to slash their production and consumption. But there is no good reason to believe that they can do this without undermining their people’s well-being. The degrowth vision is therefore much bleaker than its proponents wish to acknowledge. This isn’t to say that critics of consumerism are wrong on all counts. There’s little question that increasing GDP doesn’t automatically enhance well-being. And competitive consumption is surely a real phenomenon, which can be collectively self-defeating. Many Americans would be happier if they traded a bit of purchasing power for more time with their friends and family. And policymakers could help workers avail themselves of more leisure time — without worrying about falling behind — by mandating paid vacation days, as many European nations do. It’s clear that money isn’t buying the United States as much happiness as it should. An economy tailored to Americans’ true needs would produce more things that extend life, reduce suffering, and mitigate loneliness — and fewer that induce addiction and status anxiety. But such an economy would not be smaller than our current one. So long disease and drudgery exist, less will always be less. This series was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures. Vox had full discretion over the content of this reporting.

Agriculture

Chemicals

Climate

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Dry Wells of the Paso Basin: A Tragedy of the Commons

In the early 1990s, agricultural corporations and other investors began buying thousands of acres of cultivated and uncultivated land with water rights in the scenic wine country of San Luis Obispo County, California. They planted more vineyards and sank dozens of deep, powerful wells for irrigation that have over-drafted the already depleted Paso Robles Basin aquifer. Around 2010, the shallower wells of hundreds of country homes and small farms and ranches began failing. This documentary tells that story through the voices of three small landowners who lost their livelihoods and hopes for their futures when their wells went dry. The film then follows how they and their supporters organize social force to participate in local political processes to assert their water rights and their concerns for the environmental health of the Paso Basin.

Water

Agriculture

Activism

Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farmfields

Combat veterans from the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan find a new mission and personal healing with new careers as organic farmers and ranchers.

Health

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Xylella Fastidiosa - The Apocalypse of Salento

A look into the devastating effects of a deadly disease on the historic olive trees in Puglia, Italy.

Plants

Agriculture

Documentary

Voices of Transition

Voices of Transition is an enthusiastic documentary on farmer- and community-led responses to food insecurity in a scenario of climate change, peak oil, and economic crisis. Concrete examples from Cuba, France, and the United Kingdom tell of a future society where our monoculture deserts will be restored to living soil, where fields will be introduced into our cities, and where independence from oil will help us live a richer, more fulfilling life.

Agriculture

Food

Climate

The Peaceful Revolution

The concern of some young people in Vancouver, Canada, about an uncertain future in the face of climate change or a possible global catastrophe leads them to take the initiative to learn how to grow food on an urban plot. They embark on an adventure that surprises them not only for the power to feed themselves through their work on the land, but also for the community and health generated by the constant contact with nature. Finishing by knowing that growing food is within the reach of whoever wants it.

Agriculture

Plants

Inspirational

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sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

40% Surge: Growing Nitrous Oxide Emissions Trigger Scientific Alarm

Nitrous Oxide Emissions

Urgency in Reducing Emissions

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Suggested Viewing

Dry Wells of the Paso Basin: A Tragedy of the Commons

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Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Join us to forge
a sustainable future