Environment

The first of a series of “Forums for a Nuclear-Free New York” was held last week following New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposition for an expansion of nuclear power in New York State. Earlier in the week she called in a “State of the State” address for an additional four gigawatts of nuclear power in New York, the energy generation equivalent of four large nuclear power plantsThis continued Hochul’s nuclear drive through 2025 pushing for the state to become the center of a nuclear power “revival” in the United States and then proposing one gigawatt of new nuclear power in New York.

This first forum, a webinar on January 15, was titled a “Symposium for Safe and Affordable Energy in New York.” It was organized by a coalition of safe-energy and environmental organizations and moderated by Alec Baldwin, actor and nuclear power opponent. It featured Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere/Energy Program, and Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project. 

While Trump fires up an oil war in Venezuela, we hear from the heroic STEVE DONZIGER of his astonishing war against Chevron and for the planet & the people of Ecuador.

Steve is a true American crusader for what’s left of American democracy and the vital genius of Greenpeace & its ilk.  NO NUKES /  NO OIL & let’s join Steve saving our only home!!!

Audio link (58 mins.): https://grassrootseporg.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/253pt2grnpwrwlns.mp3

It is always easier—and more profitable—to align oneself with existing wealth and power than to resist it on the principled grounds of justice, equity, or stewardship. While the pursuit of profit rewards speed, scale, and indifference, conservation demands restraint and the acceptance of limits. The incentives are fundamentally lopsided: on one side, the gains from exploitation are immediate, private, and compounding; on the other, the rewards of conservation are delayed, diffused, and socialized. Those who seek profit have the obvious motive and the ample means to dominate the discourse, while those who argue for restraint must expend their own time, resources, and credibility with no hope of reimbursement. It is asymmetrical warfare made personal. 

I have spent most of my adult life working at the intersection of food, health, and public policy. I did not come to this work through ideology. I came to it through lived experience, long before I ever held a policy title.

My mother reversed severe, debilitating Crohn’s disease decades ago after being advised to undergo radical intestinal surgery. Doctors told her there were no other options. She refused to accept that verdict and changed what she ate. Through a whole food, plant-based approach, she regained her health. That decision reshaped our family’s relationship to food and planted the seed for my life’s work.

My mother’s healing journey is also rooted in land and farming history. Her family were pasture raised cattle farmers. They raised animals on grass, with care for land, animals, and food quality long before industrial confinement systems existed. I grew up understanding that animals, soil, and human health are inseparable, and that how food is produced matters as much as what is eaten.

History and Hubris

Over a century ago RMS Titanic vanished into the North Atlantic ocean, sunk by an iceberg indifferent to its passengers’ wealth, the vessel’s speed, or its ambitious ocean crossing schedule. The sinking was due to hubris, really—its captain’s pursuit of a record-fast crossing time despite ample warning that night of iceberg risk. He was overconfident that his ship was "unsinkable."

Today the stakes have become absurdly higher. Humanity is not crashing into an iceberg, rather we are on course for melting them all. 

The Unheeded Physics of Earth’s Worsening Fever

The science confirming our global warming trajectory isn't hidden away in arcane climate models; it's measured precisely by satellites orbiting the planet. The instruments deliver a stark warning: Earth is warming because it is absorbing more energy from the sun than it radiates back into space. This measurable discrepancy is called Earth's "radiative imbalance".

Germany’s solar generation increased more than 20% from the previous year.

Coal generation has fallen to levels last seen in the 1950s and 1960s.

Net total electricity generation in Germany has declined about 20% since 2002 despite population growth and the increase in electric vehicles and electric appliances. Even more significant has been the nearly 70% decline in generation from fossil fuels and nuclear power in the past two decades. In fact, renewables have been generating more electricity than fossil fuels in Germany since 2019.

The Trump family is now directly investing in atomic energy.  Its money-losing Truth Social company has become a part owner of a major fusion nuclear power project.

Among much more, the investments mean the Trump family stands to profit directly from White House attacks on wind, solar and other cheap, clean renewable energies which for decades have been driving fusion, fission and fossil fuels toward economic oblivion.

It’s back—the federal government’s push to expand offshore oil drilling. 

As the headline last month in the Long Island newspaper Newsday reported: “Plan for New Oil Drilling Off Fla. and Calif. Coasts.” The following day, November 22, Newsday ran a nationally-syndicated cartoon by Paul Dukinsky depicting President Trump declaring in front of a line of offshore wind turbines: “Wind Turbines Ruin the View!” Then there was Trump in front of a bunch of offshore oil drilling rigs saying: “…But Oil Rigs are Beautiful!”

The New York Times two days later ran a piece with more details headlined: “In One Week, President Makes Moves to Reshape U.S. Environmental Policy.” This involves, it noted,

On this Eve of Thanksgiving, as families gather in warm kitchens, stirring bubbling pots over hot stoves and setting tables in preparation for tomorrow’s feast, please do, truly give thanks to the farms, the farmers and to the animals and plants farmed which brought abundance to us this year.

Sharing food is a sacred act, and its eating is a gift from the Earth and from the communities who grew it. Food is a gift of life from one species to another, from the Earth herself, from the soil and land. Every act of food growing and consuming is part of a larger sacred web of nourishment and meaning with the aim and potential to sustain bodies, communities, and future generations.

Imagine your kitchen fridge is completely packed with ice, and the room is slowly warming up due to the heat from the fridge's motor and coils running continuously. The kitchen gets gradually warmer.

Now someone opens the fridge door and leaves it open.

What happens?

For a while, the kitchen actually gets cooler - even though the fridge motor is working harder than ever, pumping out more heat. The melting ice absorbs enormous amounts of energy, and cold air spills out into the room.

But here's the crucial point: this cooling is temporary. Once the ice melts away, the kitchen will become much hotter than it ever was before, because now there's no ice left to absorb energy, and the overworked motor is dumping even more heat into the room.

The Climate Reality

This is exactly what's happening with Earth's climate right now.