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As crews chainsaw Joshua trees, Mojave Desert community protests solar energy project

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Friday, September 6, 2024

When Roy Richards spotted workers cutting down and shredding Joshua trees for a sprawling solar energy project near his Mojave Desert home last week, he started taking photos. “Once the trees go through the shredders, they vanish,” he said, showing a reporter an image of a small pile of brown dust left by the crews. The developer of the Aratina Solar Center has government approval to fell all of the thousands of trees on the site. The solar energy farm won a controversial exemption from rules protecting Joshua trees four years ago after closed-door meetings between industry executives and state wildlife officials. On Saturday, residents of nearby Boron and Desert Lake, as well as other opponents of the project, will rally to demand a halt to the project. Dozens of Joshua trees once stood on this Mojave Desert landscape. They were cleared recently to make way for a large solar energy project. (Roy Richards) A 2020 survey counted 4,700 trees on the project site. Since then, however, the size of the project has been reduced. Hundreds of Joshua trees appeared to have been destroyed in the last week, but on some portions of the site the trees still stand, residents said. Neither the company nor government agencies would say how many trees have been cut down. Avantus, the developer, said fewer trees will be destroyed than the government approved.Heavy equipment has not yet started leveling the land where the trees were felled to prepare for the solar panel installation.Residents fear the earth-moving work will increase the threat of valley fever — a fungal respiratory infection that is transmitted in dust. A local group found the fungus that causes valley fever in samples of topsoil from the five parcels surrounding the towns where the solar panels will be built.“I don’t want another town to go through this,” Richards said.Executives at Avantus say the company is following development rules set by the state and Kern County as they construct the 2,300-acre project, which is planned to produce 530 megawatts of renewable energy. They said they would keep the dust down by minimizing the grading of the land. “Aratina will produce clean, affordable, and reliable energy for hundreds of thousands of Californians, contributing to California’s renewable energy goals,” the company said in a statement. “And as a changing climate forces Californians to endure more frequent and intense heat waves like the one we’re experiencing right now, projects like Aratina will help stabilize the grid and keep the lights on.”Boron, where the poverty rate is twice the state average, will not get access to that green energy. Instead it will be sent hundreds of miles away to wealthier Central Coast and Silicon Valley communities, according to contracts signed earlier by the company. A Joshua tree believed to be 150 to 200 years old rises from the desert near Boron. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) The controversy over the Mojave Desert project is an example of the many trade-offs being made as California pushes for a rapid transition from planet-warming fossil fuels to renewable energy. Solar and wind fields are expected to help mitigate climate change — which is one of several factors pushing Joshua trees toward extinction — but they are also tearing up undeveloped land, harming threatened plants and wildlife and causing concern in rural communities. “We need sustainable energy solutions that do not come at the cost of irreplaceable natural treasures,” says a petition that is trying to stop the project. The petition has been signed by more than 51,000 people.Joshua trees create habitat for other species, and Avantus has had to work to relocate the wildlife that lives there.The company said that biologists will be onsite throughout construction to ensure rules set by state wildlife officials are followed. Workers have been trained to notify a supervisor whenever they see wildlife.The site is habitat for desert tortoises and Mohave ground squirrels, which are both listed as threatened under the state’s Endangered Species Act. Avantus said that so far they have found one Mohave ground squirrel and no tortoises.In all, 44 animal species have been found on the project site. One of those is the desert kit fox, a cat-sized canine with long delicate ears and fur on the soles of its feet to protect them from the hot sand of the Mojave.In a 2020 survey of the site, biologists found more than 150 dens used by desert kit foxes.According to the Center for Biological Diversity, kit fox dens are being increasingly destroyed by large-scale industrial energy development. “Even smart, climate-saving clean-energy development like solar projects are often badly sited and destroy important kit fox habitat,” the center says. Kit foxes are among the many species of wildlife that inhabit the area where a massive solar farm is being constructed near Boron. (Roy Richards) Kern County documents say that Avantus must “passively relocate” the kit foxes by blocking their dens with soil, sticks and debris. The dens are then destroyed to prevent the kit foxes from using them again as the panels are erected, according to the documents.Avantus explained in a statement to The Times that the tactics encouraged the kit foxes to move only “temporarily” from the construction site. The company said the perimeter fence has an opening at the bottom so wildlife can return after construction.“Solar panels can provide shade and predator protection, and we have found that kit foxes and other wildlife sometimes do migrate back to an area after construction is complete,” the company said. Fence posts are installed around the Aratina Solar Center recently. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) The Aratina project was one of 15 solar projects that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Fish and Game Commission voted to exempt from rules protecting Joshua trees in September 2020 using a controversial “emergency” regulation. At that time, solar executives argued that the 15 projects had already been through extensive environmental reviews and were so close to construction they were “shovel ready.”Executives representing the 15 projects told the state repeatedly they were ready to construct and that it would be unfair to make them follow new planned Joshua tree restrictions.In reality, executives working on Aratina had just begun the review process of the project at the Kern County planning board, according to documents. Construction did not begin until this summer — nearly four years after the county Board of Supervisors voted to approve the project.“Clearly they were not shovel ready,” said Casey Kiernan, a photographer who lives in the town of Joshua Tree. Kiernan created the petition seeking to stop construction. A stand of Joshua Trees form a unique silhouette against the colors of sunset in Joshua Tree National Park in April 2019. (Mark Boster / For the Times) Melanie Richardson, a nurse whose sons attend schools in Boron, said it was “hard to even watch” as the crews began cutting down the trees.She was part of a team that found the fungus that causes valley fever in soil samples taken across the site.Richardson said she has been working on signs for Saturday’s rally, including one that says, “Why is solar more important than health.”“Nobody wants this to happen,” she said.

Mojave town protests solar energy project as crews chainsaw hundreds of protected Joshua trees

When Roy Richards spotted workers cutting down and shredding Joshua trees for a sprawling solar energy project near his Mojave Desert home last week, he started taking photos.

“Once the trees go through the shredders, they vanish,” he said, showing a reporter an image of a small pile of brown dust left by the crews.

The developer of the Aratina Solar Center has government approval to fell all of the thousands of trees on the site. The solar energy farm won a controversial exemption from rules protecting Joshua trees four years ago after closed-door meetings between industry executives and state wildlife officials.

On Saturday, residents of nearby Boron and Desert Lake, as well as other opponents of the project, will rally to demand a halt to the project.

A desert landscape devoid of Joshua trees.

A 2020 survey counted 4,700 trees on the project site. Since then, however, the size of the project has been reduced.

Hundreds of Joshua trees appeared to have been destroyed in the last week, but on some portions of the site the trees still stand, residents said. Neither the company nor government agencies would say how many trees have been cut down. Avantus, the developer, said fewer trees will be destroyed than the government approved.

Heavy equipment has not yet started leveling the land where the trees were felled to prepare for the solar panel installation.

Residents fear the earth-moving work will increase the threat of valley fever — a fungal respiratory infection that is transmitted in dust. A local group found the fungus that causes valley fever in samples of topsoil from the five parcels surrounding the towns where the solar panels will be built.

“I don’t want another town to go through this,” Richards said.

Executives at Avantus say the company is following development rules set by the state and Kern County as they construct the 2,300-acre project, which is planned to produce 530 megawatts of renewable energy. They said they would keep the dust down by minimizing the grading of the land.

“Aratina will produce clean, affordable, and reliable energy for hundreds of thousands of Californians, contributing to California’s renewable energy goals,” the company said in a statement. “And as a changing climate forces Californians to endure more frequent and intense heat waves like the one we’re experiencing right now, projects like Aratina will help stabilize the grid and keep the lights on.”

Boron, where the poverty rate is twice the state average, will not get access to that green energy. Instead it will be sent hundreds of miles away to wealthier Central Coast and Silicon Valley communities, according to contracts signed earlier by the company.

A twisted Joshua tree rises above the desert.

The controversy over the Mojave Desert project is an example of the many trade-offs being made as California pushes for a rapid transition from planet-warming fossil fuels to renewable energy. Solar and wind fields are expected to help mitigate climate change — which is one of several factors pushing Joshua trees toward extinction — but they are also tearing up undeveloped land, harming threatened plants and wildlife and causing concern in rural communities.

“We need sustainable energy solutions that do not come at the cost of irreplaceable natural treasures,” says a petition that is trying to stop the project. The petition has been signed by more than 51,000 people.

Joshua trees create habitat for other species, and Avantus has had to work to relocate the wildlife that lives there.

The company said that biologists will be onsite throughout construction to ensure rules set by state wildlife officials are followed. Workers have been trained to notify a supervisor whenever they see wildlife.

The site is habitat for desert tortoises and Mohave ground squirrels, which are both listed as threatened under the state’s Endangered Species Act.

Avantus said that so far they have found one Mohave ground squirrel and no tortoises.

In all, 44 animal species have been found on the project site. One of those is the desert kit fox, a cat-sized canine with long delicate ears and fur on the soles of its feet to protect them from the hot sand of the Mojave.

In a 2020 survey of the site, biologists found more than 150 dens used by desert kit foxes.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, kit fox dens are being increasingly destroyed by large-scale industrial energy development. “Even smart, climate-saving clean-energy development like solar projects are often badly sited and destroy important kit fox habitat,” the center says.

Kern County documents say that Avantus must “passively relocate” the kit foxes by blocking their dens with soil, sticks and debris. The dens are then destroyed to prevent the kit foxes from using them again as the panels are erected, according to the documents.

Avantus explained in a statement to The Times that the tactics encouraged the kit foxes to move only “temporarily” from the construction site. The company said the perimeter fence has an opening at the bottom so wildlife can return after construction.

“Solar panels can provide shade and predator protection, and we have found that kit foxes and other wildlife sometimes do migrate back to an area after construction is complete,” the company said.

Fence posts are installed in the desert.

The Aratina project was one of 15 solar projects that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Fish and Game Commission voted to exempt from rules protecting Joshua trees in September 2020 using a controversial “emergency” regulation. At that time, solar executives argued that the 15 projects had already been through extensive environmental reviews and were so close to construction they were “shovel ready.”

Executives representing the 15 projects told the state repeatedly they were ready to construct and that it would be unfair to make them follow new planned Joshua tree restrictions.

In reality, executives working on Aratina had just begun the review process of the project at the Kern County planning board, according to documents. Construction did not begin until this summer — nearly four years after the county Board of Supervisors voted to approve the project.

“Clearly they were not shovel ready,” said Casey Kiernan, a photographer who lives in the town of Joshua Tree. Kiernan created the petition seeking to stop construction.

A stand of Joshua Trees form a unique silhouette against the colors of sunset

Melanie Richardson, a nurse whose sons attend schools in Boron, said it was “hard to even watch” as the crews began cutting down the trees.

She was part of a team that found the fungus that causes valley fever in soil samples taken across the site.

Richardson said she has been working on signs for Saturday’s rally, including one that says, “Why is solar more important than health.”

“Nobody wants this to happen,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

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Designing a new way to optimize complex coordinated systems

Using diagrams to represent interactions in multipart systems can provide a faster way to design software improvements.

Coordinating complicated interactive systems, whether it’s the different modes of transportation in a city or the various components that must work together to make an effective and efficient robot, is an increasingly important subject for software designers to tackle. Now, researchers at MIT have developed an entirely new way of approaching these complex problems, using simple diagrams as a tool to reveal better approaches to software optimization in deep-learning models.They say the new method makes addressing these complex tasks so simple that it can be reduced to a drawing that would fit on the back of a napkin.The new approach is described in the journal Transactions of Machine Learning Research, in a paper by incoming doctoral student Vincent Abbott and Professor Gioele Zardini of MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS).“We designed a new language to talk about these new systems,” Zardini says. This new diagram-based “language” is heavily based on something called category theory, he explains.It all has to do with designing the underlying architecture of computer algorithms — the programs that will actually end up sensing and controlling the various different parts of the system that’s being optimized. “The components are different pieces of an algorithm, and they have to talk to each other, exchange information, but also account for energy usage, memory consumption, and so on.” Such optimizations are notoriously difficult because each change in one part of the system can in turn cause changes in other parts, which can further affect other parts, and so on.The researchers decided to focus on the particular class of deep-learning algorithms, which are currently a hot topic of research. Deep learning is the basis of the large artificial intelligence models, including large language models such as ChatGPT and image-generation models such as Midjourney. These models manipulate data by a “deep” series of matrix multiplications interspersed with other operations. The numbers within matrices are parameters, and are updated during long training runs, allowing for complex patterns to be found. Models consist of billions of parameters, making computation expensive, and hence improved resource usage and optimization invaluable.Diagrams can represent details of the parallelized operations that deep-learning models consist of, revealing the relationships between algorithms and the parallelized graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware they run on, supplied by companies such as NVIDIA. “I’m very excited about this,” says Zardini, because “we seem to have found a language that very nicely describes deep learning algorithms, explicitly representing all the important things, which is the operators you use,” for example the energy consumption, the memory allocation, and any other parameter that you’re trying to optimize for.Much of the progress within deep learning has stemmed from resource efficiency optimizations. The latest DeepSeek model showed that a small team can compete with top models from OpenAI and other major labs by focusing on resource efficiency and the relationship between software and hardware. Typically, in deriving these optimizations, he says, “people need a lot of trial and error to discover new architectures.” For example, a widely used optimization program called FlashAttention took more than four years to develop, he says. But with the new framework they developed, “we can really approach this problem in a more formal way.” And all of this is represented visually in a precisely defined graphical language.But the methods that have been used to find these improvements “are very limited,” he says. “I think this shows that there’s a major gap, in that we don’t have a formal systematic method of relating an algorithm to either its optimal execution, or even really understanding how many resources it will take to run.” But now, with the new diagram-based method they devised, such a system exists.Category theory, which underlies this approach, is a way of mathematically describing the different components of a system and how they interact in a generalized, abstract manner. Different perspectives can be related. For example, mathematical formulas can be related to algorithms that implement them and use resources, or descriptions of systems can be related to robust “monoidal string diagrams.” These visualizations allow you to directly play around and experiment with how the different parts connect and interact. What they developed, he says, amounts to “string diagrams on steroids,” which incorporates many more graphical conventions and many more properties.“Category theory can be thought of as the mathematics of abstraction and composition,” Abbott says. “Any compositional system can be described using category theory, and the relationship between compositional systems can then also be studied.” Algebraic rules that are typically associated with functions can also be represented as diagrams, he says. “Then, a lot of the visual tricks we can do with diagrams, we can relate to algebraic tricks and functions. So, it creates this correspondence between these different systems.”As a result, he says, “this solves a very important problem, which is that we have these deep-learning algorithms, but they’re not clearly understood as mathematical models.” But by representing them as diagrams, it becomes possible to approach them formally and systematically, he says.One thing this enables is a clear visual understanding of the way parallel real-world processes can be represented by parallel processing in multicore computer GPUs. “In this way,” Abbott says, “diagrams can both represent a function, and then reveal how to optimally execute it on a GPU.”The “attention” algorithm is used by deep-learning algorithms that require general, contextual information, and is a key phase of the serialized blocks that constitute large language models such as ChatGPT. FlashAttention is an optimization that took years to develop, but resulted in a sixfold improvement in the speed of attention algorithms.Applying their method to the well-established FlashAttention algorithm, Zardini says that “here we are able to derive it, literally, on a napkin.” He then adds, “OK, maybe it’s a large napkin.” But to drive home the point about how much their new approach can simplify dealing with these complex algorithms, they titled their formal research paper on the work “FlashAttention on a Napkin.”This method, Abbott says, “allows for optimization to be really quickly derived, in contrast to prevailing methods.” While they initially applied this approach to the already existing FlashAttention algorithm, thus verifying its effectiveness, “we hope to now use this language to automate the detection of improvements,” says Zardini, who in addition to being a principal investigator in LIDS, is the Rudge and Nancy Allen Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and an affiliate faculty with the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.The plan is that ultimately, he says, they will develop the software to the point that “the researcher uploads their code, and with the new algorithm you automatically detect what can be improved, what can be optimized, and you return an optimized version of the algorithm to the user.”In addition to automating algorithm optimization, Zardini notes that a robust analysis of how deep-learning algorithms relate to hardware resource usage allows for systematic co-design of hardware and software. This line of work integrates with Zardini’s focus on categorical co-design, which uses the tools of category theory to simultaneously optimize various components of engineered systems.Abbott says that “this whole field of optimized deep learning models, I believe, is quite critically unaddressed, and that’s why these diagrams are so exciting. They open the doors to a systematic approach to this problem.”“I’m very impressed by the quality of this research. ... The new approach to diagramming deep-learning algorithms used by this paper could be a very significant step,” says Jeremy Howard, founder and CEO of Answers.ai, who was not associated with this work. “This paper is the first time I’ve seen such a notation used to deeply analyze the performance of a deep-learning algorithm on real-world hardware. ... The next step will be to see whether real-world performance gains can be achieved.”“This is a beautifully executed piece of theoretical research, which also aims for high accessibility to uninitiated readers — a trait rarely seen in papers of this kind,” says Petar Velickovic, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind and a lecturer at Cambridge University, who was not associated with this work. These researchers, he says, “are clearly excellent communicators, and I cannot wait to see what they come up with next!”The new diagram-based language, having been posted online, has already attracted great attention and interest from software developers. A reviewer from Abbott’s prior paper introducing the diagrams noted that “The proposed neural circuit diagrams look great from an artistic standpoint (as far as I am able to judge this).” “It’s technical research, but it’s also flashy!” Zardini says.

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The UK Says at an Energy Summit That Green Power Will Boost Security, as the US Differs

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Steelhead trout rescued from Palisades fire spawn in their new Santa Barbara County home

After a stressful journey out of the burn zone in Malibu, the endangered trout have spawned in their adopted stream in Santa Barbara County.

Wildlife officials feared critically endangered steelhead trout rescued from the Palisades fire burn scar might not be up for spawning after all they’d been through over the last few months.After their watershed in the Santa Monica Mountains was scorched in January, the fish were stunned with electricity, scooped up in buckets, trucked to a hatchery, fed unfamiliar food and then moved to a different creek. It was all part of a liberation effort pulled off in the nick of time. “This whole thing is just a very stressful and traumatic event, and I’m happy that we didn’t really kill many fish,” said Kyle Evans, an environmental program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which led the rescue. “But I was concerned that I might have just disrupted this whole months-long process of getting ready to spawn.” Steelhead were once abundant in Southern California, but their numbers plummeted amid coastal development and overfishing. A distinct Southern California population is listed as endangered at the state and federal level. (Alex Vejar / California Department of Fish and Wildlife) But this month spawn they did.It’s believed that there are now more than 100 baby trout swishing around their new digs in Arroyo Hondo Creek in Santa Barbara County.Their presence is a triumph — for the species and for their adopted home.However, more fish require more suitable habitat, which is lacking in Southern California — in part due to drought and the increased frequency of devastating wildfires. Steelhead trout are the same species as rainbow trout, but they have different lifestyles. Steelheads migrate to the ocean and return to their natal streams to spawn, while rainbows spend their lives in freshwater.Steelhead were once abundant in Southern California, but their numbers plummeted amid coastal development and overfishing. A distinct Southern California population is listed as endangered at the state and federal level.The young fish sighted this month mark the next generation of what was the last population of steelhead in the Santa Monica Mountains, a range that stretches from the Hollywood Hills to Point Mugu in Ventura County. They also represent the return of a species to a watershed that itself was devastated by a fire four years ago, but has since recovered. It’s believed that there are now more than 100 baby trout swishing around their new digs in Arroyo Hondo Creek in Santa Barbara County. (Kyle Kusa / Land Trust for Santa Barbara County) The Alisal blaze torched roughly 95% of the Arroyo Hondo Preserve located west of Santa Barbara, and subsequent debris flows choked the creek of the same name that housed steelhead. All the fish perished, according to Meredith Hendricks, executive director of the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, a nonprofit organization that owns and manages the preserve.“To be able to … offer space for these fish to be transplanted to — when we ourselves had experienced a similar situation but lost our fish — it was just a really big deal,” Hendricks said. Arroyo Hondo Creek bears similarities to the trout’s native Topanga Creek; they are both coastal streams of roughly the same size. And it has a bonus feature: a state-funded fish passage constructed under Highway 101 in 2008, which improved fish movement between the stream and the ocean.Spawning is a biologically and energetically demanding endeavor for steelhead, and the process likely began in December or earlier, according to Evans.That means it was already underway when 271 steelhead were evacuated in January from Topanga Creek, a biodiversity hot spot located in Malibu that was badly damaged by the Palisades fire.It continued when they were hauled about 50 miles north to a hatchery in Fillmore, where they hung out until 266 of them made it to Arroyo Hondo the following month.State wildlife personnel regularly surveyed the fish in their new digs but didn’t see the spawning nests, which can be missed. VIDEO | 00:16 Steelhead trout in Arroyo Hondo Creek in Santa Barbara County Steelhead trout in Arroyo Hondo Creek in Santa Barbara County. (Calif. Dept. of Fish & Game) Then, on April 7, Evans got a text message from the Land Trust’s land programs director, Leslie Chan, with a video that appeared to show a freshly hatched young-of-the-year — the wonky name for fish born during the steelheads’ sole annual spawn.The following day, Evans’ team was dispatched to the creek and confirmed the discovery. They tallied about 100 of the newly hatched fish. The young trout span roughly one inch and, as Evans put it, aren’t too bright. They hang out in the shallows and don’t bolt from predators.“They’re kind of just happy to be alive, and they’re not really trying to hide,” he said.By the end of summer, Evans estimates two-thirds will die off. But the survivors are enough to keep the population charging onward. Evans hopes that in a few years, there will be three to four times the number of fish that initially moved in.The plan is to eventually relocate at least some back to their native home of Topanga Creek.Right now, Topanga “looks pretty bad,” Evans said. The Palisades fire stripped the surrounding hillsides of vegetation, paving the way for dirt, ash and other material to pour into the waterway. Another endangered fish, northern tidewater gobies, were rescued from the same watershed shortly before the steelhead were liberated. Within two days of the trouts’ removal, the first storm of the season arrived, likely burying the remaining fish in a muddy slurry. Citizen scientists Bernard Yin, center, and Rebecca Ramirez, right, join government agency staffers in rescuing federally endangered fish in the Topanga Lagoon in Malibu on Jan. 17. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) Evans expects it will be about four years before Topanga Creek is ready to support steelhead again, based on his experience observing streams recover after the Thomas, Woolsey, Alisal and other fires. There’s also discussion about moving around steelhead to create backup populations should calamity befall one, as well as boost genetic diversity of the rare fish.For example, some of the steelhead saved from Topanga could be moved to Malibu Creek, another stream in the Santa Monica Mountains that empties into Santa Monica Bay. There are efforts underway to remove the 100-foot Rindge Dam in Malibu Creek to open up more habitat for the fish.“As we saw, if you have one population in the Santa Monica Mountains and a fire happens, you could just lose it forever,” Evans said. “So having fish in multiple areas is the kind of way to defend against that.”With the Topanga Creek steelhead biding their time up north, it’s believed there are none currently inhabiting the Santa Monicas. Habitat restoration is key for the species’ survival, according to Evans, who advocates for directing funding to such efforts, including soon-to-come-online money from Proposition 4, a $10-billion bond measure to finance water, clean energy and other environmental projects.“It doesn’t matter how many fish you have, or if you’re growing them in a hatchery, or what you’re doing,” he said. “If they can’t be supported on the landscape, then there’s no point.”Some trout will end up making their temporary lodging permanent, according to Hendricks, of the Land Trust. Arroyo Hondo is a long creek with plenty of nooks and crannies for trout to hide in. So when it comes time to bring the steelhead home, she said, “I’m sure some will get left behind.”

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Chicago Teachers Union secures clean energy wins in new contract

The Chicago Teachers Union expects its new, hard-fought contract to help drive clean energy investments and train the next generation of clean energy workers, even as the Trump administration attacks such priorities. The contract approved by 97% of union members this month represents the first time the union has bargained with school officials specifically around climate change and energy, said union Vice President Jackson Potter. The deal still needs to be approved by the Chicago Board of Education. If approved, the contract will result in new programs that prepare students for clean energy jobs, developed in collaboration with local labor unions. It mandates that district officials work with the teachers union to seek funding for clean energy investments and update a climate action plan by 2026. And it calls for installing heat pumps and outfitting 30 schools with solar panels — if funding can be secured. During almost a year of contentious negotiations, the more than 25,000-member union had also demanded paid climate-educator positions, an all-electric school bus fleet, and that all newly constructed schools be carbon-free. While those provisions did not end up in the final agreement, leaders say the four-year contract is a “transformative” victory that sets the stage for more ambitious demands next time. “This contract is setting the floor of what we hope we can accomplish,” said Lauren Bianchi, who taught social studies at George Washington High School on the city’s South Side for six years before becoming green schools organizer for the union. “It shows we can win on climate, even despite Trump.” The climate-related provisions are part of what the Chicago Teachers Union and an increasing number of unions nationwide refer to as “common good” demands, meant to benefit not only their members in the workplace but the entire community. In this and its 2019 contract, the Chicago union also won “common good” items such as protections for immigrant students and teachers, and affordable housing–related measures. The new contract also guarantees teachers academic freedom at a time when the federal government is trying to limit schools from teaching materials related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Black history, Indigenous history, climate science — that’s protected instruction now,” said Potter. Chicago Public Schools did not respond to emailed questions for this story, except to forward a press release that did not mention clean energy provisions. Training Chicago’s students for clean energy jobs The union crafted its proposals based on discussions with three environmental and community organizations, Bianchi said — the Southeast Environmental Task Force, People for Community Recovery, and ONE Northside. The Southeast Environmental Task Force led the successful fight to ban new petcoke storage in Chicago, and the group’s co-executive director Olga Bautista is also vice president of the 21-member school board. People for Community Recovery was founded by Hazel Johnson, who is often known as “the mother of the environmental justice movement.” And ONE Northside emphasizes the link between clean energy and affordable housing. Clean energy job training was a priority for all three of the organizations, Potter said. Under the contract, the union and district officials will work with other labor unions to create pre-apprenticeship programs for students, which are crucial to entering the union-dominated building trades to install solar, do energy-efficiency overhauls, and electrify homes with heat pumps and other technology. The contract demands the district create one specific new clean energy jobs pathway program during each year of the four-year contract. It also mandates renovating schools for energy efficiency and installing modern HVAC systems, and orders the school district to work with trade unions to create opportunities for Chicago Public Schools students and graduates to be hired for such work. “The people in the community have identified jobs and economic justice as being essential for environmental justice,” said Bianchi. “I’ve mostly taught juniors and seniors; a lot expressed frustration that college is not their plan. They wish they could learn job skills to enter a trade.” Chicago schools progress on solar, energy efficiency, and electrification Installing solar could help the district meet its clean energy goals, which include sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewables by this year. The district has invested more than $6 million in energy efficiency and efficient lighting since 2018, and cut its carbon dioxide emissions by more than 27,000 metric tons, school district spokesperson Evan Moore told Canary Media last fall as contract negotiations were proceeding. The schools are eligible for subsidized solar panels under the state Illinois Shines program, and they can tap the federal 30% investment tax credit for solar arrays, with a new direct-pay option tailored to tax-exempt organizations like schools.

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Climate

Education

Costa Rica Proposes Strict Penalties for Illegal National Park Entries

Costa Rica is cracking down on illegal entries into its national parks and protected areas, citing dangers to visitors and environmental harm. Franz Tattenbach, Minister of Environment and Energy (MINAE), has called on lawmakers to approve a bill imposing fines of up to ¢2.3 million (approximately $4,400) on individuals and tour operators who access these areas without authorization. Over 500 unauthorized entries into Costa Rica’s 30 national parks and reserves, have been reported so far this year. High-risk areas like Poás, Turrialba, Rincón de la Vieja, and Arenal volcanoes are frequent targets, where illegal tours bypass safety protocols. Unscrupulous operators promote these “exclusive” experiences on social media, often lacking insurance, safety equipment, or trained guides. “These operators abandon clients if intercepted by authorities, leaving them vulnerable in hazardous areas,” Tattenbach said. Poás Volcano National Park, closed since March 26 due to seismic activity and ash emissions, remains a hotspot for illegal tours. The proposed bill, under discussion by MINAE and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), would introduce fines ranging from ¢1.3 million to ¢2.3 million ($2,500 to $4,400) for unauthorized entry, targeting both operators and participants. If a rescue operation is required, involving the Costa Rican Red Cross or MINAE personnel, an additional fine of ¢2.3 million ($4,400) could be imposed. Current laws penalize illegal entry under Article 58 of Forestry Law 7575, with three months to three years in prison, but enforcement is inconsistent. The new bill aims to strengthen deterrence. “These hikes involve steep slopes, toxic gases, and the risk of volcanic eruptions, which can be fatal,” Tattenbach warned, citing the 2017 Poás eruption that closed the park for over a year. Illegal entries also threaten Costa Rica’s biodiversity, which includes 5% of the world’s species. Unauthorized trails disrupt ecosystems and increase risks of poaching, according to Jorge Mario Rodríguez, Vice Minister of Environment. The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) monitors volcanic activity to inform park closures, but illegal tours undermine these safety measures. Increased Surveillance SINAC, the Costa Rican Fire Department, Red Cross, and Police Force will intensify surveillance going forward, targeting high-risk national parks and roadways to prevent unauthorized access, wildlife extraction, hunting, and trade in protected flora and fauna. “These operations safeguard our natural heritage and ensure visitor safety,” Tattenbach said. SINAC’s year-round efforts have intercepted numerous illegal tours in 2025. Visiting Parks Safely: MINAE and SINAC urge visitors to use authorized operators and purchase tickets via the SINAC website or park entrances. Guided tours, available through platforms like Viator or Get Your Guide, offer safe experiences in parks like Manuel Antonio or Corcovado. Tourists should check park statuses before planning visits, as closures due to volcanic activity or weather are common. “Respecting regulations protects both you and Costa Rica’s natural treasures,” Rodríguez said. Preserving Ecotourism: As the proposed bill awaits Legislative Assembly review, MINAE urges compliance to maintain Costa Rica’s status as a global conservation leader. For updates on the bill or park regulations, visit MINAE’s Website The post Costa Rica Proposes Strict Penalties for Illegal National Park Entries appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

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