Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Opinion: Credit rating agencies are on a collision course with Trump

1 1

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 22h

“Fitch Ratings says U.S. banks should focus on climate risks despite environmental policy pivots by White House ... extreme weather and decarbonization “enduring drivers” that threaten lenders’ operational resilience, credit performance and business models” www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

Debt raters are daring to do their jobs, challenging the President’s prevailing political narratives

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

"These trends and inequalities reaffirm the case for overcoming the dependence of nations on perpetual GDP growth4,5 and reorienting towards regenerative and distributive economic activity—within and between nations—that assigns priority to human needs and planetary integrity"

A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

www.nature.com

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

"The richest 20% of nations, with 15% of the global population, contribute more than 40% of annual ecological overshoot, whereas the poorest 40% of countries, with 42% of the global population, experience more than 60% of the social shortfall" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

www.nature.com

Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“A separate report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that global renewables could more than double by the end of the decade, with 80% of new clean energy capacity expected to come from solar power” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Record solar expansion and steady wind growth driving world’s shift away from fossil fuels in 2025, report finds

Marine heatwaves to become more frequent off UK and Irish coasts, experts say

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 1d

“During the heatwave, temperatures in the shallow seas around the UK, including the North Sea and Celtic Sea, reached 2.9C above the June average for 16 days. The extended period of time put sea life at risk of death” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Scientists find 10% chance that similar events to the ‘unheard of’ temperatures in 2023 could occur each year

An Inuit community installs Nunavut's first wind turbine

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 2d

“People of Sanikiluaq have been consulted every step of the way. They must say “Yes” four times for the project to be built. Although this slows things down and adds expense, this level of engagement leads to much better outcomes and deep community support” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/06/o...

Clara Phillips is helping Nunavut return to quiet. As development project manager at Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation, this 25-year-old engineer-in-training from Newfoundland is leading the installat...

Jane Goodall’s gaze is still on us

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 2d

“She loved world and it loved her back. … She saw personalities, rituals, grief and anger. She saw tool-use. She saw kin … We might be most 'intellectual animals' evolved so far, but we’re not intelligent. Intelligent creatures don’t destroy their only home” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/06/o...

In some deep sense, seeing is why she’s famous. She looked at chimpanzees and didn’t see objects or specimens. She gave the chimps in Gombe names instead of numbers, to outraged howls from the scienti...

Balfour Mount was the father of palliative care in North America

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 2d

"His mother said, “Bal, I want to dance. I want to know that I danced on my grave.” … She showed him that death was not a defeat, but rather, a triumph of will and the culmination of a lifetime of experience” www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

He was a cancer survivor and surgeon when he went to England to learn about an innovative hospice facility, and he returned with the idea of bringing hospice into hospitals, starting in Montreal

Canadian tech helped U.S. strike alleged Venezuelan drug boats: report | CBC News

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 2d

"International legal experts could make the argument that Canada is complicit in a way in the type of war crimes that the Trump administration has committed in the Caribbean basin," said Alexander Avina, associate professor of history at Arizona State University. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Canadian technology was used by the U.S. military in operations that blew up at least two alleged Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean in September, according to a report by Project Ploughshares.

www.cbc.ca

2

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

"West entertains proposals, like one currently hanging over the region, giving Israel the ultimate say over the future of Gaza. How is it that the country committing genocide is granted any say in the future of the people against whom it has committed genocide?” www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu

For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe

Zelenskyy accuses west of ‘zero real reaction’ to Russia’s bombardment

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 3d

“Zelenskyy said weapons used in Sunday’s attack – about 500 drones and more than 50 missiles – included components from western countries, including the US and UK. Stronger export controls are needed” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Six people killed and 18 injured in heavy drone and missile attacks across Ukraine early on Sunday

Trouble brewing: Maya people in Yucatán fear new Heineken plant’s thirst for water

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 4d

“Will use water to support 28,000 families where 121,000 people lacked access to drinking water in 2020. Water availability fallen by > 50% since 2003 … Guardians of Cenotes filed a lawsuit against the state to secure legal personhood for the underground lakes” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Indigenous groups in Mexico opposed to the planned brewery say families already have little access to water – and that their way of life is also under threat

Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 4d

“Some f-gases are potent GHGs that can remain in atmosphere for thousands of years ... Different Pfas are also applied to datacenters’ cables, piping and electronic equipment. The chemicals are volatile, meaning they can simply move into air from the equipment” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Tech companies’ use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought

Fearing permanent exile, displaced Palestinians struggle to rebuild their lives in Egypt

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 4d

“But Egypt will not give citizenship to Palestinian people. Doing so would help Israel, which wants them out of Gaza. Egypt wants the Palestinians to go back to Gaza.” www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

Separated from their homeland and unsure whether they will ever be able to return, tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees rely on each other

Canada’s climate contradictions come with economic risks

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

Up to 66 per cent of future capital investment in Canadian oil and gas projects (2025–2040) is at risk of becoming stranded, writes Nichole Dusyk www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/03/o...

Overinvesting in oil and gas is not just a problem for the climate — it also poses serious risks to the Canadian economy.

Opinion: In Sudan, a constant test of the tenacity of hope

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 5d

“What are armoured vehicles from Canadian-owned co. doing in Sudan? Why are Canada and US continuing their strong relations with United Arab Emirates, a country that has been claiming to seek peace in Sudan while supplying weapons and medical supplies to RSF?” www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Elamin Abdelmahmoud on how the Sudanese can keep their optimism in the face of a brutal war that has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world

Wildfires are getting deadlier and costing more. Experts warn they’re becoming unstoppable

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“Half of the fires that cost US$1bn or more were also in the last 10 years. Over the 44 years analysed, the frequency of fires causing 10 or more deaths tripled while the population only went up by 1.8 times” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Of 200 fires in the past 44 years, half of the fires that cost US$1bn or more were in the last decade

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“In a 44-year dataset (1980 to 2023), economic disasters increased after 2015; 43% of 200 most damaging events occurring in last decade. Disasters coincided with increasingly extreme climatic conditions, highlighting urgent need to adapt to a more fire-prone world” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...

www.science.org

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“During alerts, cars with licence plates ending in certain digits are banned from circulation; during pre-emergencies, restrictions affect more digits … modernize and electrify public transport: 30% of 9,000-unit fleet is electric” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Lifting the ‘constant black cloud’: how a smog-bound city cut dangerous levels of air pollution

A 30-year effort driven by long-term policies is finally paying off in Santiago in Chile – but the challenge is far from over

Deaths, disappearances and forced recruitment: refugees recount horrors of relentless war in Sudan

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“Honestly, after they killed my family and my relatives scattered … I had no reason to stay in Sudan,” he said. “Even if the war stops, I will never return to Sudan.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Refugees who left Darfur and Khartoum for South Sudan say they feared being targeted by both sides in conflict

Iran must move its capital from Tehran, says president as water crisis worsens

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“Last year, the rainfall was 140mm, while the standard is 260mm; that means rainfall has fallen by about 50 to 60%. This year, the situation is just as critical. Some recent estimates put the rainfall in 2025 at just below 100mm” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Masoud Pezeshkian says subsidence is also ‘a disaster’ in city of 10 million, which consumes quarter of Iran’s water

Canada must lead on permafrost protection

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“In best case, harder to achieve our net-zero goals and a stabilized average global temperature. In worst case is calamity: rapid and accelerating thaw triggering rising planet-heating carbon, with permafrost thaw driving heating, which drives further thaw” www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/02/o...

The permafrost thaw presents more than a rounding issue — it’s a potential carbon time bomb.

BC First Nations promise renewed resistance to Smith's pipeline plans

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

Marilyn Slett, chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Nation accused Smith of moving “way outside of jurisdiction,” using “backdoor methods” that disrespect Indigenous Peoples and British Columbia. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/02/n...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to build a new oil pipeline to British Columbia’s north coast is facing strong opposition from BC First Nations, who say the project not only threatens their trad...

How Japanese paper cutting inspired Montreal researchers to engineer a new type of parachute

Ralph Martin @ralphmartin.bsky.social · 6d

“No matter how you toss these parachutes, they readjust in the air and fall straight down … Imagine fleets of kiri-chutes carrying essential supplies into disaster-stricken or remote regions, minimizing costs is key, where landing a challenge, for a drone” www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/scien...

Using kirigami, simple disks of thin flexible material transform into parachutes with pinpoint accuracy