Sam Altman Says It'll Take Another Year Before ChatGPT Can Start a Timer An $852 billion company, ladies and gentlemen.

Putting aside Sam Altman just continuing to emit huge lies constantly, this is an amazing example of what I mean when I talk about how GenAI is replacing *extremely low energy* digital tasks with *WAY WAY HIGHER ENERGY* replacements that *do not even work*

Why TF is anyone using ChatGPT as a timer!

OPINION: The Roadless Rule doesn't stop firefighting – Here's proof from the field Many Montanans have heard claims that the Roadless Rule makes it harder to fight wildfires. I spent four decades managing our national forests — including the Custer-Gallatin and Helena-Lewis and

"The Roadless Rule doesn’t prevent fire management—it encourages managers to think carefully... Roadless areas are important backcountry wildlands w/ significant ecological, recreational, & wildlife habitat value."

Great op-ed by a former MT forest supervisor.

www.lewistownnews.com/commentary/o...

Flight Rituals What if murmuration isn’t a purely ecological function but also a spiritual practice?

Vaux’s swifts migrate thousands of miles each spring and autumn. They spend 99 percent of their life in motion, and researchers have long questioned the biological rhythms of these murmurations.

In this essay from our Spring 2026 issue, writer Astra Lincoln questions the spiritual rituals, too.

Chevron's CEO made $104 million while America bombed Iran America's oil executives have pocketed $1.4 billion selling stock during the Iran war, a new investigation shows.

America's oil execs have pocketed $1.4 billion selling stock during the Iran war, the WSJ reports

This cash windfall won’t go primarily toward yachts and private jets, but toward political campaigns and lobbying orgs dedicated to blocking climate policy and fueling authoritarianism

A new model for ocean protection is taking shape on Canada’s Pacific coast.
British Columbia’s Great Bear Sea brings together 17 First Nations with federal and provincial partners to safeguard 102,000 sq. km of ocean.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4tFzRrH

✏️: Serena Renner & 📸: Eli Wolpin

You have more in common with the people of Iran than you do with anyone in this administration, any member of the technocracy, anyone who is profiting from this war, or any billionaire. When you see Iranians forming human chains outside key infrastructure sites, you should feel a sense of kinship.

The president speaks genocide The words, the law, the future

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
These are the words of the president of the United States, today.
The president speaks genocide. And so we too must speak. Not only about crimes, but about their legal punishment.
snyder.substack.com/p/the-presid...

We know it's hard to focus right now amid such devastation, but today is the last day in a short public comment period about the government's proposal to revoke a 10-mile buffer around New Mexico's Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

If you care about this living cultural site, send a comment.

🥹

Partners in protection Combining ecological and cultural values, and nearly two dozen planning partners, British Columbia’s Great Bear Sea is a model of con­ser­va­tion cooper­a­tion

And a shorter story about this inspiring marine protected area (MPA) network was also just published in the print and online edition of Canadian Geographic.

Thanks to @abihayward4.bsky.social for the discerning edits and to Eli Wolpin for the incredible underwater photography!

Welcome to the Great Bear Sea After decades of discord, Canada and First Nations are working together to build a network of marine protected areas stretching from Vancouver Island to Alaska.

Here's the @biographic.bsky.social feature in case you missed it! Featuring stellar editing by @cestmoilanglois.bsky.social and immersive photography and video by Bennett Whitnell. Thanks also to @hakai.org and @ijnr.bsky.social for the support.

Incredibly honored to see my @biographic.bsky.social feature "Welcome to the Great Bear Sea" (edited by the talented @cestmoilanglois.bsky.social) on the long list for the Environmental Reporting category of the 2026 @oneworldmedia.bsky.social awards 🙏

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

More context on this #Artemis II image:

* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right

* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕

Rapid Snow Melt-Off in American West Stuns Scientists Experts say brutal March heat has left critical snowpack at record-low levels – and key basins in uncharted territory.

The American West is facing historic levels of snowmelt following a warm winter and then a sweltering March heat wave — alarming scientists.

In this @theguardian.com repost, senior reporter @gabriellecanon.bsky.social shares the grim realities of what the melt-off means for California and beyond.

5.5 Million Tons of CO2 Emitted in Just 14 Days of US War on Iran The war in the Middle East is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined.

The US-Israel war on Iran has drained the global carbon budget faster than the 84 lowest-emitting countries combined.

“Burning up the annual emissions of Iceland in two weeks is something we really cannot afford,” Frederick Otu-Larbi tells @damiengayle.bsky.social for @theguardian.com.

It was rewarding to help edit this feature for the Spring 2026 issue of @earthislandjournal.bsky.social.

Journalist KC Cheng documents Ukraine’s rich wild-food-gathering tradition that’s surviving in spite of, or maybe because of, the risks posed by the Russian invasion.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Earth Island Journal is seeking pitches for an upcoming special edition on education and the environment.

Know of an incubation of environmental innovation? Censoring content that's threatening the climate movement? Surprising impact of global heating on learning? Message us!

First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says

The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.

Popular Front Might old-school environmentalists, Indigenous activists, and Christian mystics come together to resist the Machine logic that’s eating the planet?

In a poignant @earthislandjournal.bsky.social essay, @jasondovemark.bsky.social questions whether our upside-down world and politics might give rise to a new coalition against the "Machine" — the "rapacious capitalism, digital enclosure, and a hollowed-out culture that devalues life and spirit."

Ties That Bind Violence against humans is connected to violence against the earth, but healing is possible when we come together.

As EIJ Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren was wrapping up our Spring 2026 issue, she noticed some common threads — namely violence against humans and violence against the earth, which are intimately connected.

But so are “bravery and resilience under harsh, sometimes unimaginable, circumstances."

Our Spring 2026 issue hits newsstands soon!

Inside, you’ll find Ukrainian mushroom foragers, Bosnian bee hunters, child farmworkers, murmurating swifts, paper-cut sea creatures, and unlikely allies against “the Machine.”

Subscribe to our print issue today! donate.earthisland.org/page/20964/d...

Robert Bullard

When Robert Bullard began speaking about the connections between race and environmental harm, he was a voice in the wind. Now, these connections are widely recognized.

To close out #BlackHistoryMonth, we’re revisiting our 2015 Conversation with Bullard, which feels all the more relevant today.

Conservation Enters a New Era - bioGraphic One year after the Trump administration slashed biodiversity protections at home and abroad, people and organizations are figuring out where to go from here.

Today, @biographic.bsky.social published its first special issue:

Conservation Enters a New Era

One year after the Trump administration slashed biodiversity protections at home and abroad, people and organizations are figuring out where to go from here.

www.biographic.com/conservation...

In the latest @earthislandjournal.bsky.social newsletter, I write about joining a local resistance group and witnessing the power of strangers ✊

donate.earthisland.org/page/email?m...

I spent 17+ years writing Letters FROM the Editor. So it’s kind of nice to write a Letter TO the Editor. Some thoughts of mine from the March edition of @theatlantic.com

Under the Cover of Tear Gas As the federal siege of Minnesota continues, the Boundary Waters wilderness is also under attack.

While the public has been defending Minnesota against ICE assaults, Congress has been pushing for copper mining in the Boundary Waters.

“Most Americans wouldn’t support it if they knew about it,” writes @jasondovemark.bsky.social. “The proposed pillage is happening under the cover of tear gas.”

Connecting with Rural America Climate activist and political organizer Chloe Maxmin on authenticity, climate conversations, and democracy in rural spaces.

“Community is being built,” says Chloe Maxmin of Dirtroad Organizing. “It’s not just showing up for the sake of showing up; it’s showing up because your community needs you.”

In this Winter 2026 Conversation, Maxmin discusses how to connect across differences, and shares what else gives her hope.

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

A reminder that, while some of the damage that Trump & GOP are doing might seems temporary, the damage they're doing to the planet is permanent:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/c...