Produce Less – Exploring Degrowth

Reports from institutions responsible for analyzing this global phenomenon show that the United States’ aggressive maneuvers in the Caribbean were not aimed at drug trafficking: Reports from the UN, the DEA, the European Union, and the World Customs Organization over several years reveal that Venezuela is an “irrelevant” country in terms of drug production and trafficking. So much so that Venezuela has seized 70% of what has been attempted to pass through Venezuelan territory, which does not exceed 6% of the total traffic between Ecuador, Colombia, and the United States.

Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues in Bangladesh, threatening ecosystems, public health, and urban hygiene. Experts agree that the crisis stems more from its irresponsible use and widespread mismanagement than from plastic production itself. Plastic’s low cost and convenience, combined with a lack of viable alternatives, have made it the default material across households and industries.

Those who do not live in war zones or in suffocated countries are forced to live life as if there is nothing strange about what is happening around us. When we read about war, it is disconnected from our lives, and many of us want to stop listening to anything about the human misery caused by weapons or by sanctions. The scholasticism of the academic and the hushed tones of the diplomat are silenced as the bomb and the bank wage war against the planet. After authorising the atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima (Japan) on 6 August 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman announced on the radio: ‘If [the Japanese] do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth’.

No doubt working people everywhere would benefit from a greater sharing of experiences and community-based strategies of resistance.  At the same time, it seems clear that there is a natural alliance waiting to be formed, one that brings together those opposing data center operations and construction with those opposing the widespread use of LLMs in schools, workplaces, health care institutions, and government services.

A sweeping new review warns that chemicals in common plastics pose serious and lasting health risks to children, from before birth through adulthood. Published September 21 in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, the study examined hundreds of studies involving pregnant women, babies, and children. Researchers found that plastic additives such as phthalates, bisphenols, and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can disrupt hormones, trigger inflammation, and affect brain development, increasing lifelong risks of chronic conditions such as obesity, infertility, asthma, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Over the first four months of 2025, 56 Norwegian citizens convened to discuss how Norway’s immense oil wealth can best serve current and future generations, both domestically and globally. Unlike traditional policymaking, where elected officials and experts call the shots, this so-called Future Panel – the second such assembly held in Norway – allowed ordinary citizens, selected through a representative process and equipped with the necessary knowledge, to craft recommendations through informed debate.

An honest and imperfect response to the climate crisis would require a political, behavioural, economic and moral transition that would systematically reduce our energy and material consumption at an unprecedented pace. But that’s not an action any modern politician seems to be able to contemplate, let alone discuss.

Gov. Kathy Hochul justified a $1 billion natural gas project by appealing to affordability. But the main reason the state needs the energy is because data centers are hogging it. The true beneficiary of the natural gas pipeline Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) approved earlier this month won’t be ratepayers, as she claims, but tech companies that are leeching enormous amounts of energy away from the state’s electrical grid, contend environmental advocates, researchers, and lawmakers. Artificial intelligence companies and other tech outfits are burdening the grid so severely that it will be 1,600 megawatts short of power within the next four years, according to the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).

In late 2024, Brazilian federal police dismantled a sprawling illegal gold mining network in Pará, exposing a criminal enterprise that stretched far beyond the rainforest. The operation, part of a broader crackdown on illicit mining in Indigenous territories, uncovered links to money laundering via shell companies and fraudulent permits, with funds traced to accounts in Dubai, Miami, and Panama.