Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Did Trump’s Iran War Just Hand The Planet A Clean Energy Boom?
Donald Trump calls the climate crisis a hoax. But the war he and Israel launched on Iran in February may be doing more for clean energy than any climate summit. With the Strait of Hormuz choked off, fossil fuel importers have paid $330 billion above prewar expectations, and 33 governments have adopted new policies to get off oil and gas. Solar and battery demand is spiking from the Philippines to Europe. Carbon Brief estimates global fossil fuel emissions will drop half a percent this year, and the International Energy Agency says oil demand may peak now instead of 2029. California Governor Gavin Newsom told the Guardian, “He’s woken the world up to how vulnerable we are to petro-dictatorships.” Nobody can blockade the sun or the wind. It’s a shame it took a war to prove it.
A Giant Hidden Wave Bears Down On California And Threatens To Swamp The Coast
Meanwhile, the ocean is on the move. A massive pulse of warm water called a Kelvin wave is creeping north along the Pacific coast at about 6 miles an hour, driven by what forecasters expect to be the strongest El Niño since at least 1950. You can’t see it from the beach. Satellites can. Scientists say it’ll lift California’s sea level 6 to 12 inches this month, on top of about a foot of rise we’ve already caused by heating the planet. A UC Santa Cruz researcher warns that every 2 to 4 inches of extra water doubles the flood risk for coastal towns. After storm surf tore up Southern California beaches last month, climate scientist Daniel Swain said, “Unfortunately this is just a preview.” Winter storms come next. The bill for a hotter planet is coming due, and it’s landing on our shores.
UN Sounds The Alarm As The Window To Save The World’s Forests Closes
And it isn’t only the oceans. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reports that we’ve cleared more than 489 million hectares of forest since 1990, about 1.2 billion acres, and degraded nearly as much again. Governments have promised to restore over a billion hectares of land. Barely a fifth of that is actually happening. Fires now hit 127 million hectares of forest every year. These forests hold up to 80% of all life on land, and nearly a third of humanity depends on them for food and income. FAO chief Qu Dongyu put it bluntly. “The window for action is narrowing.” The report says doing nothing costs up to $6.3 trillion a year, while restoration could return $1.8 trillion a year in benefits. Saving forests isn’t charity. It’s the best investment on Earth, and politicians keep walking past it.
Scientists Warn The Bugs Are Vanishing. Will The Animals Go With Them?
Forests aren’t the only thing we’re losing. A sweeping review in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, drawing on almost 300 studies over 75 years, finds that insects do far more than feed other animals. Nearly three-quarters of the land and freshwater species studied eat insects and other invertebrates. But wildlife also shelters in termite mounds and ant nests. Dung beetles clean up waste and kill parasites. Poison dart frogs get their toxins from the ants and beetles they eat. Chimpanzees press insects into open wounds. Co-lead author Eliza Grames of Binghamton University warned, “Changes in insects can have massive consequences for food webs and ecosystems.” Insect numbers are falling around the world. Lose the little things, and the big things we love go down with them.
Are City Lights Stealing The Stars From Your Kids?
Here’s something else slipping away. The night itself. A 2023 study in Science, built on reports from more than 50,000 citizen stargazers, found the night sky is getting about 10% brighter every year. That means it doubles in under 8 years. Roughly 80% of people on Earth now live under light-polluted skies. Lead researcher Christopher Kyba said, “This is real pollution, affecting people and wildlife.” Artificial light confuses migrating birds and baby sea turtles, scrambles firefly courtship and wrecks human sleep. Now thousands of satellites are adding their own glare from above. The fix is cheap. Shielded fixtures, warmer bulbs and lights that go off when nobody needs them. Flagstaff, Arizona has had lighting rules since 1958. The stars belonged to every human who ever lived. We shouldn’t be the generation that loses them.
Is Your Lunch Meat Sandwich Putting Your Brain At Risk?
Finally, you might want to rethink that sandwich. A new review in the Annual Review of Nutrition, led by Owen Carmichael of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, points to a British study of nearly 500,000 people. Each extra 25 grams of processed meat a day, about two slices of deli turkey, was linked to a 44 to 52% higher risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Ultraprocessed foods now make up 55 to 58% of the calories Americans eat. In Italy it’s about 10%. Another analysis estimates that swapping just a tenth of those calories for real food could cut dementia risk 19%. The authors are careful. These studies show a link, not proof. But when giant food companies make their money selling us this stuff, don’t wait for them to warn you. Eat real food.
And that’s the way it is, Today Friday, October 2, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
