At #Chevron’s Gates, Communities Demand #Justice and a #FossilFree Future

#AntiChevron Day 2026 united communities fighting #extraction, #EnvironmentalRacism, and #corporate impunity across continents

May 21, 2026 | Paul Paz y Miño

"Nearly three decades after communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon first brought global attention to Chevron’s crimes, and 13 years after activists launched the first Anti-Chevron Day in 20 countries, the resistance continues. Chevron remains one of the most polluting companies on Earth – and one of the most determined to avoid accountability for it.

Anti-Chevron Day

"For the 13th year running, Anti-Chevron Day brought frontline leaders from across the globe to the shadow of Chevron’s #RichmondCA refinery, where communities gathered with anger, grief, music, ceremony, and determination to confront one of the world’s most destructive oil companies.

"The gathering came just weeks after the historic First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, #Colombia, where Indigenous leaders and governments demanded an urgent and just transition away from the fossil fuel economy that continues to poison the territories and devastate the health of frontline communities worldwide. In Richmond, that demand felt immediate and deeply personal. It is being shaped by the people most directly harmed by extraction and pollution, and by movements building solidarity across borders.

"Chevron must clean up its '#RainforestChernobyl' in the #EcuadorianAmazon!

"For over three decades, Chevron chose profit over people. While drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1964 to 1990, it deliberately dumped more than 16 billion gallons of #ToxicWastewater, spilled roughly 17 million gallons of #CrudeOil, and left #HazardousWaste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor."

Read more:
https://amazonwatch.org/news/2026/0521-at-chevrons-gates-communities-demand-justice-and-a-fossil-free-future

#BigOil #ChevronKnew #OilDrilling #EnvironmentalCatastrophe #OilPollution #AmazonWatch #IndigenousResistance #CleanUpYourMessChevron

New filing stirs #GreatSaltLake fears as giant #Utah #DataCenter comes into view, eyes water needs

by Jennifer Green
Thu, May 21, 2026

"A new #WaterRights filing tied to a proposed #MegaDatacenter in northern Utah is renewing fears about the future of the Great Salt Lake, just as new renderings offer the clearest look yet at what the massive development could become.

"What's happening?

"A proposal connected to the #BoxElderCounty data center project seeks to transfer 11 acre-feet of water from an unnamed spring in #HanselValley, KSL reported.

"That marks a steep drop from a previous 1,900-acre-foot application that was withdrawn May 7 after prompting around 3,800 protests.

[...]

"The proposal is facing intense scrutiny because the Great Salt Lake is already under strain from long-term water shortages, and data centers can consume huge amounts of both electricity and water.

"Critics worry that even relatively small individual filings could add up over time if the development expands toward its full vision, which includes 7.5 to 9 gigawatts of power-producing capacity."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/filing-stirs-great-salt-lake-084000807.html

#WaterIsLife #ThermalPollution
#HeatGeneration #Drought #GreatSaltLake #Environment #EnvironmentalCatastrophe
#UtahPol #Datacenters
#DatacentersSuck #SharkTank
#AISucks

Tribune editorial: The voice of the people has pushed #Utah leaders to stop and think about massive #DataCenter. Keep it up.

This is an issue that has united people across the political spectrum.

By The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board
| May 22, 2026

"The fear that a ginormous, water-guzzling, air-befouling, weather-modifying data center planned for Utah’s northwest corner was a done deal seems to be easing just a bit. It’s not hard to see why.

A handful of key state officials are now promising that, before the project actually gets built — if it ever does — the appropriate environmental reviews, with opportunities for public comment, will happen.

"That doesn’t mean that the people who have stood up to what appeared to be a pre-greased mega-project can rest easy. Vigilance and activism are what have worked so far, and will be necessary going forward. As long and exhausting as that process might be.

"It will take a lot of continual public outcry to counterbalance the monied interests pouring campaign contributions into the coffers of Utah Senate President #StuartAdams and other powerful worthies who have been pushing the plan.

"Few Utahns had any inkling that a little-known state agency called the Military Installation Development Authority (#MIDA), which Adams chairs, had put its weight behind the #StratosProject, a proposed data center that would, at full build-out, generate and consume twice as much electricity as the whole state of Utah.

"The Box Elder County Commission had to sign off on the project before the MIDA board could take over all land-use, water, energy, environmental and tax-abatement authority over the 40,000-acre project — immune from any democratic oversight.
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"Despite loud public objections, online and in person, commissioners did exactly that. Given that the land is privately owned, not part of any city and not zoned for any particular use, commissioners argued they really didn’t have the power to stop it.

"But others do."

Read more:
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2026/05/22/tribune-editorial-public-outcry/

#UtahPol #KevinOLeary #WaterConsumption #HeatPollution #ResistDatacenters #WaterIsLife #ThermalPollution #HeatGeneration
#Drought #GreatSaltLake
#Environment #EnvironmentalCatastrophe #Datacenters #DatacentersSuck
#SharkTank #AISucks

The 23-Atomic-Bomb Valley: Why #Utah’s #AIDataCenter Is A #ClimateDisaster In The Making

by Rex Freiberger
Wed, May 20, 2026 at 11:18 AM EDT

"Your state might be next. Utah counties just approved a data center so massive it would consume more power than the entire state currently uses, dump the heat equivalent of 23 atomic bombs daily into high desert, and potentially increase local #carbon emissions by 55%. Welcome to the #StratosProject—#KevinOLeary’s 40,000-acre bet that #AI supremacy trumps everything else."

[...]

"Utah State University physicist Robert Davies calculated #Stratos would dump 16 gigawatts of #ThermalLoad into the surrounding valley—energy equivalent to 23 Hiroshima-scale atomic bombs worth of #heat every single day. You’re trying to cool massive server farms by blowing hot desert air over hot radiators, Davies notes, which doesn’t work well in high-altitude, arid conditions.

"His projections show daytime temperatures rising 2-5°F and nighttime temperatures jumping 8-12°F across the region. #Desert #ecosystems depend on #NighttimeCooling to generate life-sustaining #condensation. Lose that temperature drop, and you’ve fundamentally altered how plants and animals survive in an already stressed #GreatSaltLakeWatershed."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/23-atomic-bomb-valley-why-151828961.html

#Utah #WaterIsLife #ThermalPollution #HeatGeneration #Drought #GreatSaltLake #Environment #EnvironmentalCatastrophe #UtahPol #Datacenters #DatacentersSuck #SharkTank #AISucks

I always thought that #JRRTolkien's #Smaug was a metaphor for the #IndustrialAge and #WealthHoarding. It seems I'm not alone! #Tolkien was actually an #environmentalist and possibly a #socialist (though he describes himself as an #anarchist). Does that mean #LOTR will be banned by #Fascistic #Capitalists? Hmmmm...

#Dragonomics: Smaug and #ClimateChange

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Richard Fahey

Excerpt: "Today, we talk about dragons. I refer specifically to the greedy, northern (often fire-breathing) variety as described in Beowulf and featured in Tolkien’s #Hobbit, and I will consider how these monsters present #EnvironmentalCatastrophe as a direct result of #hoarding and #greed.

"My discussion of dragons and climate change continues my recent series of blogs interested in placing medieval literature (and in this case also modern medievalism) in conversation with current crises. This blog develops an earlier argument made in a paper at a 'Tolkien in Vermont' conference (2014), titled 'Dragonomics: Smaug and #Pollution on Middle-Earth,' in which I argue that pollution in Tolkien’s Hobbit is linked to both the literal destruction by the dragon, and the rampant greed that motivates Smaug and ultimately initiates the plunder and violence at the Battle of Five Armies."

Read more:
https://sites.nd.edu/manuscript-studies/2019/02/22/dragonomics-smaug-and-climate-change/#:~:text=I%20would%20argue%20that%20for%20Tolkien%E2%80%94whose%20environmentalism,promised%20wealth%20but%20delivered%20also%20ecological%20catastrophe.

#MiddleEarth #Capitalism #ClimateCrisis #Oiligarchy #Oligarchy #CapitalismMustDie

Well that is disturbing. The results of this year's #BugsMatter survey are in, and show a continued decline in flying insect populations in the UK.

Down by 59% since 2021. Now I'm no insect ecologist, but that sounds like a scarily large decline to me.

https://www.buglife.org.uk/news/new-data-suggest-that-insect-life-continues-to-decline-despite-a-hot-summer/

#EnvironmentalCatastrophe #Buglife #Bugs #Insects

If anyone in the #UnitedStates is trying to make an effort to reduce microplastics and plastics in general, I have been using this company:

https://www.grove.co/

for about a year now. This IS an endorsement of their products and their shipping procedures which use paper tape, paper packing materials, and metal containers, all of which are way more recyclable than plastic. I realize that individual actions won't get us out of this mess we have created, but this makes me feel good that there is a company out there with this ethos. I have no idea how their labor relations are, how sleazy the CEO is, or anything else, but this an endorsement of their products and their shipping procedures.

#EnvironmentalCatastrophe
#plastic
#microplastics
#ecocide

17mins 41secs of your important time on important, current dangers and what is to come.
If you are bewildered, concerned, embracing of or indifferent to AI, please watch this intelligent, no nonsense TED talk by Carole Cadwalladr
Worthwhile looking up on the nets!
some wiki 👇 on Carole

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Cadwalladr

Link to Tedtalk thank you @Kjaerulv 👇

https://mastodon.social/@Kjaerulv/114318374706967751

#AI #caroleCadwalladr #yourKidsKidsKids #environmentalCatastrophe
#world #thisIsNow #broligarchy #ausPol #worldPol

OnlineFirst - "Natality as world-building in Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind's In Vitro (2019)" by Norma Musih:

#politicalimagination #HannahArendt #Art
#environmentalcatastrophe #sciencefiction
#Palestine #Exile

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/25148486251329845

#Russia suffering '#EnvironmentalCatastrophe' after #OilSpill in #KerchStrait

Joshua Cheetham, Olga Robinson & Matt Murphy, January 23, 2025

"Satellite images reviewed by BBC Verify have shown a major oil slick spreading across the Kerch Strait that separates Russia from annexed #Crimea, a month after two oil tankers were badly damaged in the #BlackSea.

"Oil has leaked into the strait from two ships which ran into trouble during bad weather on 15 December. Volgoneft-239 ran aground following the storm, while Volgoneft-212 sank.

​​"Up to 5,000 tonnes of oil has now leaked, and media reports and official statements analysed by BBC Verify suggest the spill has spread across the Black Sea and the #SeaOfAzov.

"A senior Russian scientist called the spill the country's worst '#EnvironmentalCatastrophe' of the 21st Century.

"'This is the first time fuel oil has been spilled in such quantities,' Viktor Danilov-Danilyan - the head of science at the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) - said in a 17 January interview with a Russian newspaper.

"Russian scientists said in December that this spill could be more than twice the size of a similar disaster in the strait in 2007, which saw up to 1,600 tonnes of #HeavyOil leak into the sea. #Ukraine's ministry of #ecology has estimated that the clear up from the latest spill could cost the Russian state up to $14bn (£11.4bn).

"#PaulJohnston, a scientist at #GreenpeaceResearchLaboratories, said 'there's always an element of uncertainty around oil spills', but a lack of timely information has heightened this uncertainty further.

"'I'm not entirely optimistic we'll ever know the full extent of the problem,' he added.

"Satellite images reviewed by #BBCVerify on 10 January - the most recent available high-resolution photos - showed a #MassiveOilSlick running through the strait, measuring at least 25km (15 miles) long. A second, smaller slick measuring around 5.7km (3.5 miles) long is also visible."

Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23ngk5vgmpo
#WaterIsLife #EnvironmentalDestruction #OilSpill