The Environment

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THE PROTEIN PROBLEM Beef is a way of life in Texas, but it’s hard on the planet. This cattle rancher believes she can help change that No food is harder on the environment than beef. Nobody knows this better than Texas rancher Meredith Ellis. Ellis was born into the profession and now calls the shots for her family’s 3,000-acre ranch outside Dallas. She and other farmers and researchers are trying to make burgers less burdensome, so you don’t have to give up your red meat. Read more.

Why this matters: Beef is the single most damaging food for the planet, as the largest agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide.   Climate scientists say the answer is simple: Eat less beef and raise fewer cattle. But most people around the world are consuming more beef, not less.   Some researchers and ranchers believe the solution lies in the practice of regenerative ranching: a cyclical process of moving cattle to different pastures in an effort to restore the soil.

Related coverage ➤  In the land of hamburgers and sausages, plant-based meat sales are growing. How did Germany do it? In the quest to produce more food with almost no land, Singapore provides a glimpse into the world’s food future Demand for seafood is soaring, but oceans are giving up all they can. Can we farm fish in new ways?

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Can this tiny bird enlist the federal government to get more water to the Great Salt Lake? 

Environmental groups on Thursday filed a petition to protect a bird that uses the Great Salt Lake as a migratory stop under the Endangered Species Act, a step that could in turn enlist the federal government to bring more water to the lake. 

https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2024/03/28/petition-to-list-wilsons-phalarope-as-endangered-species-great-salt-lake/?

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The Ghosts of John Tanton

Patrick Crusius worried that Texas — hot and dry and facing climate calamity — was being overrun by immigrants. For his entire life he’d watched as Allen, Texas, the upper-middle-class Dallas suburb where he grew up, more than doubled in size, with quick-built mansions and car-choked freeways. Crusius, 21 years old, with wavy dark brown hair, sparse stubble collecting on his round chin, was awkward and introverted. He spent eight hours a day on his computer. He learned to hate the influence of megacorporations and the culture of consuming cheap goods that he thought they fostered, and he detested the waste and pollution that came with it. He brooded over the dwindling supplies of clean water and that too many people were competing for too little of it. But more than anything he had come to hate Hispanic migrants, who had turned his overwhelmingly white town into a nearly-half ethnic one. He wanted to keep them out. “#BuildTheWall is the best way that @POTUS has worked to secure our country so far!” he tweeted in 2017. In a world of constraints and an environment under stress, why should he have to share with them?

https://www.propublica.org/article/john-tanton-far-right-extremism-environmentalism-climate-change?

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Squirrelly behavior

California ground squirrels typically munch on seeds and plants, but a new study found that they’re now eating other rodents. This carnivorous tendency could be in response to environmental changes.

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Elon Musk’s Boring Company Is Tunneling Beneath Las Vegas With Little Oversight

Elon Musk’s Boring Company spent years pitching cities on a novel solution to traffic, an underground transportation system to whisk passengers through tunnels in electric vehicles. Proposals in Illinois and California fizzled after officials and the public began scrutinizing details of the plans and seeking environmental reviews.

https://www.propublica.org/article/elon-musk-boring-company-las-vegas-loop-oversight?

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How mega-polluters take advantage of billions in green loans

Shell got one. So did the pipeline company Enbridge. And last summer, energy giant Drax got its biggest one to date, worth more than half a billion dollars.

https://apnews.com/article/shell-drax-greenwashing-pollution-sustainabilitylinks-loans-slls-a28e03c7421222c58025b31ab8185272?

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Critical court case

A big trial in a small North Dakota courtroom is testing the First Amendment. Jurors are considering a $300 million lawsuit against the environmental group Greenpeace, and experts say the case could deal a huge blow to free speech.

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TCE Is Linked to Heart Defects in Babies, Cancer and Parkinson’s. Republicans in Congress Want to Reverse a Ban on It.

The toxic substance, used in dry cleaning and manufacturing, has been linked to a host of serious health problems. A Biden-era ban on the chemical has faced multiple challenges since Trump took office.

https://www.propublica.org/article/tce-ban-cancer-parkinsons-trump-republicans?

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The tiny lizards you see everywhere have an unexpected power — they can tolerate ‘extreme’ toxic lead

The ubiquitous brown anoles that you’ve probably seen skirting around the nearest bush or tree are not only quick little roach killers, a recent study reveals that they are unaffected when exposed to levels of toxic lead that would hurt humans and other animals.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/12/the-tiny-lizards-you-see-everywhere-have-an-unexpected-power-they-can-tolerate-extreme-toxic-lead/?

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New Bills Seek to Rein In Oil Companies’ Pollution of Oklahoma Groundwater

An Oklahoma state senator has introduced legislation to strengthen regulations on how oilfield wastewater is injected underground following an investigation by The Frontier and ProPublica.

https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-legislation-oil-gas-injection-wells-water-pollution-cleanup?