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New laws in 2026 target climate change, drunken driving

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Wednesday, December 31, 2025

A slate of new laws will go into effect in states across the country beginning Jan. 1. From Hawaii imposing a tax on tourists to address conservation, to California raising its minimum wage by $0.40 an hour, 2026 will bring a host of policy changes. Here is what to know about four state laws that take effect in the new year. Hawaii launches “Green Fee”  Hawaii is raising its Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) from 10.25 to 11 percent starting on Jan. 1. The TAT is imposed on those operating tourist accommodations, as well as travel brokers, agents and tour packagers.  The 0.75-percent increase, which Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) dubbed the “Green Fee,” is expected to generate roughly $100 million in additional annual revenue for environmental stewardship, climate resilience and sustainable tourism projects.  Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism reported that over 9.6 million individuals visited the islands in 2023, an increase of 4.6 percent from 2022. Meanwhile, recovery in Lahaina, on the island of Maui, is ongoing in the wake of the deadly 2023 wildfires there. “As an island chain, [Hawaii] cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action. We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future,” Green said in June, upon signing the increase into law. Utah tightens restrictions on drunk drivers In Utah, courts will be able to prohibit individuals convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) from purchasing alcohol starting on Thursday.  That is thanks to H.B. 437, which Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed into law in March. The law allows judges to designate an individual convicted of extreme DUI as an “interdicted person.”  Under the law, those guilty of extreme DUI are defined as individuals with a blood or breath alcohol content of 0.16 or higher, more than triple the state’s legal limit. From 2022 to 2023, DUI charges and alcohol-related crashes and fatalities in Utah decreased from 908 to 847 and from 69 to 47, respectively, according to the state’s Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. Texas establishes AI standards In the Lone Star State, lawmakers set a uniform standard regarding artificial intelligence (AI) with the Responsible AI Governance Act.  H.B. 149, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed in June, prohibits the use of AI to produce sexually explicit content or child pornography, obtain biometric data without an individual’s consent and manipulate human behavior — specifically inciting or encouraging self-harm. Texas joins over a dozen states with laws regulating AI. Debate over whether to leave AI governance to states or to impose a federal standard has split the GOP, as the Trump administration and House Republican Leadership have backed a federal preemption of state AI laws.  California boosts minimum wage California employers will be required to pay their workers at least $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1, establishing a 40-cent increase for the minimum wage.  The rise was calculated by the California Department of Finance, which is mandated by law to adjust the state’s minimum wage based on inflation.  The increase applies to hourly workers, as well as salaried employees who do not receive overtime pay. Starting in 2026, minimum-wage salaried employees in the Golden State will make $70,304, an increase from $68,640 previously.  As of April 2024, the fast-food employees in California had to be paid at least $20 an hour, while health care workers also have a higher minimum wage that adjusts for inflation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

A slate of new laws will go into effect in states across the country beginning Jan. 1. From Hawaii imposing a tax on tourists to address conservation, to California raising its minimum wage by $0.40 an hour, 2026 will bring a host of policy changes. Here is what to know about four state laws that...

A slate of new laws will go into effect in states across the country beginning Jan. 1.

From Hawaii imposing a tax on tourists to address conservation, to California raising its minimum wage by $0.40 an hour, 2026 will bring a host of policy changes.

Here is what to know about four state laws that take effect in the new year.

Hawaii launches “Green Fee” 

Hawaii is raising its Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) from 10.25 to 11 percent starting on Jan. 1. The TAT is imposed on those operating tourist accommodations, as well as travel brokers, agents and tour packagers. 

The 0.75-percent increase, which Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) dubbed the “Green Fee,” is expected to generate roughly $100 million in additional annual revenue for environmental stewardship, climate resilience and sustainable tourism projects. 

Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism reported that over 9.6 million individuals visited the islands in 2023, an increase of 4.6 percent from 2022. Meanwhile, recovery in Lahaina, on the island of Maui, is ongoing in the wake of the deadly 2023 wildfires there.

“As an island chain, [Hawaii] cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action. We must build resiliency now, and the Green Fee will provide the necessary financing to ensure resources are available for our future,” Green said in June, upon signing the increase into law.

Utah tightens restrictions on drunk drivers

In Utah, courts will be able to prohibit individuals convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) from purchasing alcohol starting on Thursday. 

That is thanks to H.B. 437, which Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed into law in March. The law allows judges to designate an individual convicted of extreme DUI as an “interdicted person.” 

Under the law, those guilty of extreme DUI are defined as individuals with a blood or breath alcohol content of 0.16 or higher, more than triple the state’s legal limit.

From 2022 to 2023, DUI charges and alcohol-related crashes and fatalities in Utah decreased from 908 to 847 and from 69 to 47, respectively, according to the state’s Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.

Texas establishes AI standards

In the Lone Star State, lawmakers set a uniform standard regarding artificial intelligence (AI) with the Responsible AI Governance Act. 

H.B. 149, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed in June, prohibits the use of AI to produce sexually explicit content or child pornography, obtain biometric data without an individual’s consent and manipulate human behavior — specifically inciting or encouraging self-harm.

Texas joins over a dozen states with laws regulating AI. Debate over whether to leave AI governance to states or to impose a federal standard has split the GOP, as the Trump administration and House Republican Leadership have backed a federal preemption of state AI laws. 

California boosts minimum wage

California employers will be required to pay their workers at least $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1, establishing a 40-cent increase for the minimum wage. 

The rise was calculated by the California Department of Finance, which is mandated by law to adjust the state’s minimum wage based on inflation. 

The increase applies to hourly workers, as well as salaried employees who do not receive overtime pay. Starting in 2026, minimum-wage salaried employees in the Golden State will make $70,304, an increase from $68,640 previously. 

As of April 2024, the fast-food employees in California had to be paid at least $20 an hour, while health care workers also have a higher minimum wage that adjusts for inflation.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Young Atlantic salmon seen in three English rivers for first time in a decade

Species that is critically endangered in Britain is spotted in Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers in north-westYoung Atlantic salmon have been seen in three rivers in north-west England for the first time since 2015, marking a “significant environmental turnaround”.The salmon species was declared critically endangered in Britain in 2023 but fish have been spotted in the Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers, meaning they have successfully travelled from the Arctic Circle to spawn. Continue reading...

Young Atlantic salmon have been seen in three rivers in north-west England for the first time since 2015, marking a “significant environmental turnaround”.The salmon species was declared critically endangered in Britain in 2023 but fish have been spotted in the Mersey, Bollin and Goyt rivers, meaning they have successfully travelled from the Arctic Circle to spawn.A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said the body would be undertaking a new salmon distribution study early next year, telling the BBC they were “very excited to find the fish successfully spawning, considering the species’ critically endangered status”.The salmon spawn in freshwater gravel beds, returning to their rivers of origin after spending two or three years feeding in the Arctic.Their survival in Britain has been threatened by various factors including climate change, pollution and invasive non-native species, with a 30-50% decline in British populations since 2006.Mark Sewell, a wastewater catchment manager at United Utilities, told the BBC: “Significant stretches of river were biologically dead in the 1980s but today they support thriving ecosystems and are home to a number of pollution-intolerant fish species. Those species are recovering thanks to a significant environmental turnaround.”Atlantic salmon are also threatened by blockages in rivers such as dams. While they are able to swim up the Mersey to spawn in the gravel beds of the Bollin, which flows through Cheshire, and the Goyt, which runs through Derbyshire and Stockport, obstacles in other rivers block their paths.They cannot migrate up the River Tame due to its weirs or the River Irwell because of the Mode Wheel locks at Salford Quays.Mike Duddy, of the Salford Friendly Anglers Society, told the BBC; “If we wanted to do something for our future generations, now is the time to build a fish pass because there are huge numbers of people that would love to see salmon returning to the Roch and Irk, as well as the rivers in Bolton.”The species declined in Britain during the Industrial Revolution but built back before being declared critically endangered again two years ago.The Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We will be undertaking a new salmon distribution study in early 2026, using eDNA sampling, to build an even better picture of the spawning range and assess the extent of recovery.”

Climate
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Our Biggest Climate Stories of 2025

Long committed to covering the intersection of the food system and climate change, Civil Eats again kept a record in 2025. To capture the climate policies of the previous administration as a benchmark, we began the year with a look at four years of climate policy under Biden. Soon, our Food Policy Tracker team catalogued […] The post Our Biggest Climate Stories of 2025 appeared first on Civil Eats.

This year, as climate change continued to impact and alter the food system, the Trump administration dismantled many of the climate projects and protections that were put in place to help tackle the problem. Long committed to covering the intersection of the food system and climate change, Civil Eats again kept a record in 2025. To capture the climate policies of the previous administration as a benchmark, we began the year with a look at four years of climate policy under Biden. Soon, our Food Policy Tracker team catalogued the eroding of climate-friendly policies and reported on the cancellation of conservation grants and the blocking of taxpayer dollars for funding solar panels on farmland. Beyond funding, the Civil Eats team covered the government’s proposed removal of a key regulation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and examined corporate influence on climate policy. We focused on solutions, too, highlighting people, organizations, and ideas that are proving effective in the absence of federal leadership. We wrote about people working with native seeds in California, growing organic buckwheat in the Northwest, planting urban fruit trees in Denver, and encouraging the return of wild oysters in Maine. Indigenous researcher Elsie DuBray made a powerful case for the reintroduction of buffalo as a means of restoring the Western landscape—and as a way to reestablish an ancient, important bond between people and Earth. These are our most important climate-related stories of 2025, in chronological order. How Four Years of Biden Reshaped Food and Farming From day one, the Biden administration prioritized climate, ‘nutrition security,’ infrastructure investments, and reducing food system consolidation. Here’s what the president and his team actually did. Farmers Say Climate-Smart Commodities Projects Are Crumbling Thousands of farmers across the country were enrolled in dozens of projects and expecting USDA payments to implement conservation practices. Now contracts are being cancelled, and farmers face uncertainty. Pasa Sustainable Agriculture’s Climate-Smart Technical Assistance team gathered to train at a sheep farm in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. (Photo courtesy of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.) Op-ed: The Food System Cannot Become Another Fossil-Fuel Industry Escape Hatch Oil and gas companies, with new federal support, are ramping up production within every aspect of the food chain. If we are to protect ourselves from cataclysmic climate change, we must stop them. Deregulatory Blitz at EPA Includes Climate and Water Rules That Impact Agriculture Administrator Lee Zeldin announced more than 30 deregulatory actions, including steps to roll back rules that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and farm pollution, and to eliminate environmental justice efforts. Acequia de los Vallejos in southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley. (Photo courtesy of the Acequia Institute) An Ancient Irrigation System May Help Farmers Face Climate Change The arid Southwest has a proven model, the acequia, for water use that is local, democratic, and resilient to heat and drought. Agroforestry Projects Across US Now Stymied by Federal Cuts Farming with trees at scale could buffer the impact of climate change. That work faces new obstacles as the USDA slashes funding. The Future of California’s Climate-Smart Farming Programs Can the state’s vaunted regenerative agriculture programs—and its fight against climate change—continue without stronger local support? Could This Arizona Ranch Be a Model for Southwest Farmers? Oatman Flats has undergone a dramatic transformation, becoming the Southwest’s first Regenerative Organic Certified farm and a potential source of ideas for weathering climate change. Warming Waters Cause Invasion of Sea Squirts at Maine Fisheries The small blob-like creatures are wreaking havoc on coastal aquaculture—and climate change is making the problem worse. How Big Ag Lobbyists Perpetuate Climate Inequity Industry groups spend hundreds of millions to cultivate political favor, excluding most Americans from critical decisions about food and climate. Op-ed: There Is No Future Where the Lakota and the Buffalo Don’t Exist Together A tribal food systems fellow says that Buffalo are good for the land, but they also teach us how to relate to place, to other beings, and to ourselves. Trump Cuts Threaten Federal Bee Research A little-known division within the Interior Department is facing elimination, jeopardizing national efforts to protect essential pollinators. A crew at Hedgerow Farms hand harvests Lasthenia californica in Winters, California. (Photo credit: Joshua Scoggin/Hedgerow Farms). Farmworkers Heal Climate-Scarred Land With Native Seeds At California’s Hedgerow Farms, specialists produce seeds to revegetate burned areas, reestablish wetlands, and transform drought-prone farmland. From Bees to Beer, Buckwheat Is a Climate-Solution Crop Farmers and researchers are working together to expand organic buckwheat production in the Northwest and drive demand for this nutritious, ecologically beneficial seed. US Importers Sued for ‘Greenwashing’ Mexican Avocados Most avocados sold in the U.S. come from Mexico, where farming methods have serious environmental and human-rights impacts. Yet importers continue to market the fruit as sustainably grown. 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2025 Was One of Three Hottest Years on Record, Scientists Say

Climate change worsened by human behavior made 2025 one of the hottest years ever recorded

Climate change worsened by human behavior made 2025 one of the three hottest years on record, scientists said.The analysis from World Weather Attribution researchers, released Tuesday in Europe, came after a year when people around the world were slammed by the dangerous extremes brought on by a warming planet. Temperatures remained high despite the presence of a La Nina, the occasional natural cooling of Pacific Ocean waters that influences weather worldwide. Researchers cited the continued burning of fossil fuels — oil, gas and coal — that send planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.“If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels very, very, quickly, very soon, it will be very hard to keep that goal” of warming, Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution and an Imperial College London climate scientist, told The Associated Press. “The science is increasingly clear.”Extreme weather events kill thousands of people and cost billions of dollars in damage annually.WWA scientists identified 157 extreme weather events as most severe in 2025, meaning they met criteria such as causing more than 100 deaths, affecting more than half an area’s population or having a state of emergency declared. Of those, they closely analyzed 22.That included dangerous heat waves, which the WWA said were the world's deadliest extreme weather events in 2025. The researchers said some of the heat waves they studied in 2025 were 10 times more likely than they would have been a decade ago due to climate change.“The heat waves we have observed this year are quite common events in our climate today, but they would have been almost impossible to occur without human-induced climate change,” Otto said. “It makes a huge difference.”The WWA said the increasingly frequent and severe extremes threatened the ability of millions of people across the globe to respond and adapt to those events with enough warning, time and resources, what the scientists call “limits of adaptation.” The report pointed to Hurricane Melissa as an example: The storm intensified so quickly that it made forecasting and planning more difficult, and pummeled Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti so severely that it left the small island nations unable to respond to and handle its extreme losses and damage. Global climate negotiations sputter out This year's United Nations climate talks in Brazil in November ended without any explicit plan to transition away from fossil fuels, and though more money was pledged to help countries adapt to climate change, they will take more time to do it.Yet different nations are seeing varying levels of progress. “The geopolitical weather is very cloudy this year with a lot of policymakers very clearly making policies for the interest of the fossil fuel industry rather than for the populations of their countries," Otto said. “And we have a huge amount of mis- and disinformation that people have to deal with.”Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior researcher at the Columbia University Climate School who wasn't involved in the WWA work, said places are seeing disasters they aren't used to, extreme events are intensifying faster and they are becoming more complex. That requires earlier warnings and new approaches to response and recovery, he said.“On a global scale, progress is being made," he added, "but we must do more.”The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – December 2025

Climate
Science
Water

Hawaii Farmers Are Fighting to Keep Their Soil From Flushing Out to Sea

Farmers in Hawaii are adapting to effects of a changing climate by combining traditional Hawaiian practices with new, regenerative agricultural techniques to save soils, streams and reefs

Young cacao trees stand in an unlikely spot on the northeastern slopes of the Waianae Range, growing on a windswept point overlooking Oahu’s North Shore. “Our soil, in the summer, becomes a powdery flour,” says Max Breen of Kamananui Cacao Farm. “A lot of runoff, a lot of blowing. … Challenging to plant a wind-sensitive crop up here.”Breen is adapting. He planted his chocolate-bearing trees under a runway of black matting and mulch, interspersed with native and locally important saplings — gandules or pigeon peas, aalii and iliee. Those shrubs and plants will grow faster and protect the sensitive cacao from the harsh sun and ruthless coastal winds. The mulch and matting will help hold the soil in place against the wind and rain.Soil is paramount to crop health but especially important in historically productive areas such as central and northern Oahu. Farmers there were already contending with the repercussions of decades of plantation agriculture, which wrought almost irreparable damage on once-deep topsoils. Now, they’re trying to hold onto the light topsoil that’s left.Climate change is only making that harder. The region is experiencing more intense periods of drought, which dries out the soil, followed by more intense periods of rain, which flushes it off the farm and muddies the coastal waters miles below.Without soil on the land, farming is crippled. With soil in the water, sea life suffocates. Farmers like Breen understand their soil was built over millions of years and is difficult to replace, and they recognize their farms have an influence on the entire watershed’s health — what happens in the mountains affects the reefs below. For this part of Oahu, that means Kaiaka Bay, which is showing elevated levels of sediments and contaminants across most metrics, including possible chemical pollutants. Over the past three years, Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii has helped Breen and 10 others within the same watershed prevent more than 25 dump truck loads — more than 300 tons — of sediment from making its way into Kaukonahua Stream and eventually the ocean. Approximately 735 pounds (333 kilograms) of nitrogen and 317 pounds (148 pounds) of phosphorus were stopped from entering the stream too. The farmers’ methods reflect a return to Indigenous agricultural values that blend new techniques with a more holistic approach to environmentally friendly food production. This involves negotiating modern property lines, water availability and environmental priorities. Breen underscored the need to be able to retain the water when it comes, while ensuring the land is primed for its arrival — for the farm and for the watershed. Scientists estimate annual rainfall will drop 16% to 20% in the Kamananui watershed between 2040 and 2070, or 11 to 14 fewer inches (28 to 36 centimeters) of rain. The temperature is predicted to rise 2% to 4%, or up to 3.1 degrees Celsius, according to the Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange developed by University of Hawaii climate scientist Ryan Longman. “One or two degrees Celsius warmer,” Longman says, “is still going to have profound implications to ecological function and for food production.”Despite the challenging outlook, the farms all have similar goals: to educate the public on the virtues of agriculture, to reinvigorate a stagnant agricultural economy and to increase the islands’ self-sufficiency.For Kamananui, education is baked into the business model. Any given day can bring a gaggle of tourists to sample raw cacao from one of the 7-year-old farm’s 1,600 mature trees. Those trees will produce thousands of pounds of chocolate this year, and the yield is expected to rise.Kamananui was recently named among the 50 best cacao growers in the world, joining a growing list of internationally recognized Hawaii growers in a niche-but-burgeoning homegrown cacao and chocolate industry. That recognition is part of the draw for tourism, which a 2022 survey found accounts for about 30% of farmers’ incomes. During these tours, guides introduce visitors to the Native Hawaiian ahupuaa land division system. The practice was once prevalent throughout Hawaii, balancing food production and environmental health to sustain their residents. The health of theaina and wai, land and water, was central to the practice. Now, after years of polluting and extractive plantation agricultural practices, pockets of farmers are returning to a holistic approach to agriculture that shuns the idea of extraction. Letting nature inform the work is part of that, as Breen and his colleagues adopt measures to keep both soil and water on the land while growing out their chocolate enterprise. “As we spend time here, I see how the land reacts to water, especially when we get big storms,” Breen said. “What soil stays wet, what floods, where ephemeral streams are created — the land, it just kind of teaches us as we go.”Chandeliers of bananas hang heavy on the limbs of green and yellowing plants 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) downslope from the cacao orchard. Plots of bare dirt surround the banana patches. The land is freshly tilled, previously blanketed with bushy velvet beans, which farmer Gabriel Sachter-Smith turned over as he prepped for the next planting. Sachter-Smith is known for his bananas — he has a bank of roughly 150 varieties. But he’ll be cycling in beans again next season to inject nitrogen into the soil, suppress weeds and stabilize the earth. The beans will decompose underground, adding nutrients to the land for the bananas when they’re planted. Strong, healthy soils absorb more water and retain it longer, which is important as climate change intensifies rain events while supercharging drought. This practice is just one form of regenerative agriculture, a cultivation canon that has emerged in prominence throughout Hawaii in the wake of pineapple and sugar plantations. Central to the regenerative ethos is the rebuilding of the environment and restoring balance.It’s costly and time-consuming, Sachter-Smith says, but he is driven by a sense of responsibility to his farm, environment and community.Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii has been supporting Sachter-Smith, Kamananui and nine other farms and ranches within the watershed to do the work, facilitating grants of $6,000 to $47,000 to help them take on conservation projects as part of their work. “It’s really about having a suite of practices that work together that support viable farm operation but that also provide valuable environmental outcomes for all,” said Dave Elliot, executive director of Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii. Many farmers want to integrate these practices into their everyday work, which is why grant funding and technical assistance is important. Sustainability for farmers is not just environmental, Sachter-Smith said, it’s a question of economic viability. The state doesn’t keep data on how many farmers or farms have adopted regenerative techniques, partly because it’s difficult to define, Hawaii Farmers Union Vice President Christian Zuckerman said. Unlike organic certification, which has a strict set of parameters, regenerative agriculture is still in its infancy.There is growing interest in the cultivation method, particularly among the younger generation of farmers and ranchers. Larger farms recognize soil conservation is good for their bottom line: more healthy soil means fewer fertilizers need to be purchased. “It’s not just bottom-line driven,” Zuckerman said. “It’s understanding that you have to be thinking seven generations ahead. We’re not just thinking about tomorrow. It’s a shift in mindset.” Regenerative techniques are an exciting “back to the future” development in farming, yielding results at the cutting edge of agricultural science, says researcher Noa Lincoln, who leads the University of Hawaii Indigenous Cropping Systems lab.It has been prone to politicization. Earlier this year, the Trump administration canceled — and is now remodeling — a $3.1 billion initiative to help farmers and ranchers do more to conserve soils and implement climate-friendly techniques. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called the program a “green new scam.” Hawaii was set to receive about $30 million in support. State lawmakers have mostly ignored legislation that would promote these practices. In 2022, the state enacted a law to create a cover crop initiative to help farmers buy seed for velvet beans and other crops. It never resulted in a program.The erstwhile federal initiative promised a lot but ended up being “actively harmful” to Sachter-Smith’s operation, he said. Grants are an important source of capital for farmers, especially when they’re adopting techniques new to them. But they are hard work, farmers say, requiring grantees to jump through bureaucratic hoops that sometimes work counter to their intuition. “We’re just small, at the end of the day. The money we’re working with is peanuts,” Sachter-Smith said. “But those peanuts mean a lot to us farmers.” Na Mea Kupono’s 14 ponds are nestled in the outskirts of Waialua, surrounded by homes a stone’s throw from Kaukonahua Stream. Taro grows from some of the ponds, others sit fallow, while tilapia swim in another, all situated between Sachter-Smith’s banana farm and Kaiaka Bay. Native, endemic and endangered birds loiter, with species such as aeo, kolea, akekeke and koloa nesting and idling in the kalo and lichen-covered rocks. In a fully functional ahupuaa such ponds would help control waterflow, cleaning it as it flows coastward from pond to pond. That still is the case, albeit a modern interpretation. Property lines and land and water uses have interrupted the ancient systems but Steve Bolosan and Kaimi Garrido see it as their responsibility to maintain the area as a loi kalo. They are witnessing water become more scarce as nearby properties are developed amid a changing climate. “When the new guys are coming in, they’re changing the flow of the drains,” Bolosan says. “But we feel we’re stewards and that’s our kuleana — this is one of the last pieces of old Hawaii.”The loi has a natural spring they can draw from but they have noticed a drop in rain in recent years, which is why they sought funding to help implement their windbreaks and to remove invasive grasses from their streamside land. They plan to plant native species in place. Framing the farm with milo and kukui trees and mulch helps retain soil while protecting the plot from winds, which hamper plant growth, fuel soil erosion and blow dry the greenery, parching the soils.Sitting near the edge of the watershed, 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from Kaiaka Bay, the farmers take pride in the birdlife and the techniques they use, Indigenous or otherwise. “It’s really important that we are chemical-free,” Garrido said. “We use no herbicides or synthetic fertilizer.” Other farms working with Agricultural Stewardship installed bioswales, shallow trenches filled with vegetation that act like Na Mea Kupono's loi. They are sponges for moisture, filtering water and slowing its flow downhill. They are often found in urban landscapes to help manage stormwater. Many regenerative techniques being promoted these days have their roots in Indigenous methods, a cornerstone of Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii’s work, according to watershed program manager Sophie Moser. To better understand the impacts of their work, the organization uses modeling technology developed by Minnesota’s Board of Water and Soil Resources. The program is still in its pilot stages on Oahu, focused on Agricultural Stewardship’s project areas on the North Shore and in Waimanalo. The models take what practices each farm implements to estimate how much sediment and nutrients the farms retain. Agriculture Stewardship’s partner farms each reduced up to 90 tons of sediment, 210 pounds of nitrogen (95 kilograms) and 91 pounds (41 kilograms) of phosphorus per year. “We can incentivize things but it’s hard now with how many different landowners there are,” Moser said. “In my dream world everyone living on agricultural land within one watershed would turn to more traditionally minded ways of managing so the water is coming out cleaner than it came into their property, and better for downstream people.”Kaiaka Bay has become known for its murky brown waters. After heavy rain, it’s even darker. It’s popular nonetheless, thronged by hopeful anglers who may not know the site has about one-third the fish population of an average Oahu fishing spot. Authorities attribute this to several factors, particularly the sediment that blankets the seafloor, clouds the water and strains the resident sea life. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus promote blooms of algae that potentially release toxins. Runoff carrying agricultural chemicals poses an equally toxic hazard. “Wherever the water falls, it’s bringing everything that it’s touching out into the ocean,” says Tova Callender of the state Division of Aquatic Resources. Callender, based on Maui, says any techniques for soil retention and erosion control are resoundingly positive, even if the payoff isn’t obvious or immediate. “They’re not blowing smoke; everything that they’re doing is meaningful,” Callender said of the farmers’ efforts upstream. “If we had intact upper forests and we had regenerative agriculture on all our ag lands and we hadn’t filled in our wetlands, I wouldn’t have a job. And that would be great.”The Main Hawaiian Islands’ reefs are worth $33.57 billion in economic terms, according to a 2011 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The economic value of the Koolau watershed alone is between $7.4 billion and $14 billion, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. Public-private partnerships’ work on watershed preservation efforts in the mountains and highland forests has continued for years but little data has been collected or made available on the effects of urban and agricultural conservation efforts for nearshore waters. Sediments only add to the increasing impacts of climate change on the reefs, which regularly face bleaching events as ocean temperatures rise. Without coral reefs, the islands are even more exposed to other climate change-associated threats, such as surging seas during stronger storms.It’s hard to tell just how much progress has been made through regenerative techniques because positive changes on a few acres in the hills take a while to manifest downstream. But it’s all part of an integrated system, as it was in the days when the land was managed as an ahupuaa — a past that Kamananui Orchards cacao farmer Breen occasionally ponders. “Just thinking about that, to me as a farmer here,” Breen said, “makes me feel inspired.”This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – December 2025

Climate
Agriculture
Chemicals

Clouds are vital to life – but many are becoming wispy ghosts. Here’s how to see the changes above us

As reflective white clouds become scarcer, learning to read the clouds could become essential in helping glimpse the changes upon us.

Thomas Koukas/Unsplash, CC BY-NC-NDAs a scholar researching clouds, I have spent much of my time trying to understand the economy of the sky. Not the weather reports showing scudding rainclouds, but the deeper logic of cloud movements, their distributions and densities and the way they intervene in light, regulate temperatures and choreograph heat flows across our restless planet. Recently, I have been noticing something strange: skies that feel hollowed out, clouds that look like they have lost their conviction. I think of them as ghost clouds. Not quite absent, but not fully there. These wispy formations drift unmoored from the systems that once gave them coherence. Too thin to reflect sunlight, too fragmented to produce rain, too sluggish to stir up wind, they give the illusion of a cloud without its function. We think of clouds as insubstantial. But they matter far beyond their weight or tangibility. In dry Western Australia where I live, rain-bringing clouds are eagerly anticipated. But the winter storms which bring most rain to the south-west are being pushed south, depositing vital fresh water into the oceans. More and more days pass under a hard, endless blue – beautiful, but also brutal in its vacancy. Worldwide, cloud patterns are now changing in concerning ways. Scientists have found the expanse of Earth’s highly reflective clouds is steadily shrinking. With less heat reflected, the Earth is now trapping more heat than expected. A quiet crisis above When there are fewer and fewer clouds, it doesn’t make headlines as floods or fires do. Their absence is quiet, cumulative and very worrying. To be clear, clouds aren’t going to disappear. They may increase in some areas. But the belts of shiny white clouds we need most are declining between 1.5 and 3% per decade. These clouds are the best at reflecting sunlight back to space, especially in the sunniest parts of the world close to the equator. By contrast, broken grey clouds reflect less heat, while less light hits polar regions, giving polar clouds less to reflect. Clouds are often thought of as an ambient backdrop to climate action. But we’re now learning this is a fundamental oversight. Clouds aren’t décor – they’re dynamic, distributed and deeply consequential infrastructure able to cool the planet and shape the rainfall patterns seeding life below. These masses of tiny water droplets or ice crystals represent climate protection accessible to all, regardless of nation, wealth or politics. On average, clouds cover two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, clustering over the oceans. Of all solar radiation reflected back to space, clouds are responsible for about 70%. Clouds mediate extremes, soften sunlight, ferry moisture and form invisible feedback loops sustaining a stable climate. Earth’s expanse of white, reflective clouds is shrinking decade after decade. Bernd Dittrich/Unsplash, CC BY-NC-ND When loss is invisible If clouds become rarer or leave, it’s not just a loss to the climate system. It’s a loss to how we perceive the world. When glaciers melt, species die out or coral reefs bleach and die, traces are often left of what was there. But if cloud cover diminishes, it leaves only an emptiness that’s hard to name and harder still to grieve. We have had to learn how to grieve other environmental losses. But we do not yet have a way to mourn the way skies used to be. And yet we must. To confront loss on this scale, we must allow ourselves to mourn – not out of despair, but out of clarity. Grieving the atmosphere as it used to be is not weakness. It is planetary attention, a necessary pause that opens space for care and creative reimagination of how we live with – and within – the sky. Seen from space, Earth is a planet swathed in cloud. NASA, CC BY-NC-ND Reading the clouds For generations, Australia’s First Nations have read the clouds and sky, interpreting their forms to guide seasonal activities. The Emu in the Sky (Gugurmin in Wiradjuri) can be seen in the Milky Way’s dark dust. When the emu figure is high in the night sky, it’s the right time to gather emu eggs. The skies are changing faster than our systems of understanding can keep up. One solution is to reframe how we perceive weather phenomena such as clouds. As researchers in Japan have observed, weather is a type of public good – a “weather commons”. If we see clouds not as leftovers from an unchanging past, but as invitations to imagine new futures for our planet, we might begin to learn how to live more wisely and attentively with the sky. This might mean teaching people how to read the clouds again – to notice their presence, their changes, their disappearances. We can learn to distinguish between clouds which cool and those which drift, decorative but functionally inert. Our natural affinity to clouds makes them ideal for engaging citizens. To read clouds is to understand where they formed, what they carry and whether they might return tomorrow. From the ground, we can see whether clouds have begun a slow retreat from the places that need them most. Learning to read the clouds can help us glimpse the changes above. Valentin de Bruyn/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-ND Weather doesn’t just happen For millennia, humans have treated weather as something beyond our control, something that happens to us. But our effects on Earth have ballooned to the point that we are now helping shape the weather, whether by removing forests which can produce much of their own rain or by funnelling billions of tonnes of fossil carbon into the atmosphere. What we do below shapes what happens above. We are living through a very brief window in which every change will have very long term consequences. If emissions continue apace, the extra heating will last millennia. I propose cloud literacy not as solution, but as a way to urgently draw our attention to the very real change happening around us. We must move from reaction to atmospheric co-design – not as technical fix, but as a civic, collective and imaginative responsibility. Professor Christian Jakob provided feedback and contributed to this article, while Dr Jo Pollitt and Professor Helena Grehan offered comments and edits. Rumen Rachev receives funding from Edith Cowan University (ECU) through the Vice-Chancellor's PhD Scholarship, under the project Staging Weather led by Dr Jo Pollitt. He is also a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) member of the Centre for People, Place, and Planet (CPPP) at ECU.

Climate
Crisis
Forests

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