This is about regulations around industrial processes that ravage wildlife and public health. This is about the right and ability to live—the right and ability of rivers, soil, flora, fauna and people to live. This concerns land “owners.” It’s about the waste generated by gas-powered cars and e-vehicles, paved roads, air conditioners, telephones, smartphones, smart meters, the Internet, data storage and AI from their cradles-to-graves. It’s about tin, copper, coltan, cobalt, lithium, silicon and plastic. It’s about electricity, coal, natural gas, dams, nuclear power, nuclear waste. It’s about solar PVs’ hazardous waste, wind turbines (they don’t biodegrade), batteries’ toxicity and flammability.
It relates to the Declaration of Independence. Peter Smith recently explained that Thomas Jefferson took and tweaked words from John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that every citizen has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Why did we found our country on the pursuit of happiness, a temporary thing—like a slice of cake, or a cool email?)
Back to John Locke’s Treatise. There, in 1689, he wrote that everyone has a right to life, liberty and estate. “Estate” means land.
Locke recognized that the Earth was given to all of humanity. A person makes a patch of land their own by planting a field, working it, and harvesting its fruit. John Locke considered property a right—but only when everyone has the same right. No one should hoard land they don’t work or let land lie idle while others go without.
In seventeenth century England, with the New World apparently limitless, Locke didn’t consider the possibility that land could become scarce or that one person’s estate could leave other people with none.
Locke also didn’t consider what happens when land “owners” ravage land and waterways by clearcutting forests, extracting fossil fuels and rare earths, smelting, refining, generating chemical toxins, emitting radiation, generating nuclear waste, planting genetically modified organisms, spraying pesticides and herbicides.
THE RIGHTS OF NATURE
Regulations—like the Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act—essentially provide a permitting process for corporations to do their business. They do not protect water or air through industrial or digital developments. They don’t grant give rivers or forests the right to live, flourish or regenerate. Environmental lawyer Will Falk has authored The State Rights of Nature, for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). In 2006, CELDF passed the first modern “rights of nature” law. The report details the rights of nature movement’s history, explains the past decade’s most important legislation and court rulings, and lays out principles to help advocates distinguish between rights of nature initiatives that have been corrupted and those that have not.
In two of my substacks, Will Falk discussed Utah’s ban on nature’s rights, and what choices we have when a corporation wants to do business.
To learn meaningful, protective legal actions, I also highly recommend Jane Anne Morris and Richard Grossman’s October 9, 2001 interview with Tom Lewiston about how the 14th Amendment has been used to protect corporate “rights.”
On July 10th, the Trump administration rescinded the definition of “harm” from the Endangered Species Act to include only “direct harm.” This benefits extractive industries (drilling, logging, mining, fishing, etc.). It will likely cause irreparable damage to biodiversity and natural places. Wilderness Watch has a detailed assessment of the damage. The Center for Biological Diversity, Columbia Riverkeeper, Conservation Law Foundation, Conservation Northwest, Friends of the Wild Swan, Oregon Wild, Sierra Club, Swan View Coalition, and WildEarth Guardians—all represented by Earthjustice—have filed a lawsuit lawsuit in the Federal District Court of Seattle.
Meanwhile, for trying to protect Thacker Pass, Nevada, from lithium mining Will Falk and Max Wilbert have been fined $49,890.13.
In Michigan, tree laws raise constitutional and philosophical questions about property owners and nature’s rights.
A TECHNONOLOGICAL-SPIRITUAL PARADOX
Mark Shryock suggests we’re in “a technological spiritual paradox.” Will humanity choose the invisible and mysterious stream of spiritual evolution—or the denser reality of technological expansion?
Just when we need more human connection, Atlanta offers its employees free “smart” bassinets. Although the manufacturer took steps to reduce babies’ exposure to wireless radiation, the device collects the infant’s name, birthday, photo, gender, premie status and sleep patterns; and Happiest Baby’s privacy policy allows it to share the data with its affiliates and service providers.
DATA CENTERS
In Southern New Mexico, the proposed Project Jupiter data center would use natural gas (and chemicals) to produce 2.45 gagwatts of electricity—enough to power several of the state’s largest cities. It would generate 10 million tons of greenhouse gas, more than Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces combined. Project Jupiter will cost $500 billion. (Will its workers be able to afford rent, food and health care??) Several environmental advocacy groups will participate in the permit process, including the Center for Biological Diversity, New Energy Economy, NM Environmental Law Center and Youth United for Climate Crisis Action. The Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 49 supports Project Jupiter. So does the state’s Economic Development Department. Project Jupiter’s developers want the process sped up, which environmental advocates oppose.
Read Theodora Scarato’s compilation about AI data centers’ health impacts.
THE FCC
FCC has proposed a 4-fold increase in power limits (from one watt to four) for wireless devices…without analyzing the increased radiation emissions’ effects on public health, including children’s health. Children’s Health Defense is urging the FCC to drop the proposal. More than 50 recent studies have found adverse effects from prenatal exposure to wireless radiation in humans and six other species.
On July 15, FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty said: “1G gave us analog voice or the brick phone era. 2G introduced text messaging. 3G put the internet in our pockets and enabled the first smartphones. 4G brought mobile broadband and the cloud, enabling the streaming, app-based, and on-demand digital economy that continues to thrive today. 5G, still in deployment, has brought faster data transfers, lower latency, and the infrastructure backbone for the Internet of Things.
“6G will deliver faster speeds than 5G. 6G…will integrate communications, computing, sensing, and precise positioning, all into a unified platform…by the native integration of artificial intelligence into 6G network architecture…. 6G networks will detect objects, measure distances, track movements, and provide critical situational awareness without separate radar or sensor systems…. And beyond blurring the boundary between the physical and digital worlds, 6G is expected to support the seamless integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks providing near-global broadband coverage. The first major 6G deployments are expected around 2030, though trial launches may come earlier....”
https://savelandlines.org for up-to-date info and actions to save landlines.
SATELLITES, AI + WARFARE, & BATTERY STORAGE FIRE STUDIES
Multiple companies have launched thousands of satellites—trillion-dollar IPOs—with the prospect of direct satellite-to-phone links. Can satellites handle the traffic in more populated areas? Can they support smartphones that are indoors or in vehicles? This white paper sponsored by the Wireless Industry Association provides a reality check.
Meanwhile, the Kessler Syndrome predicts that a single collision of satellite debris in low Earth orbit could trigger a cascade that renders entire altitudes unusuable for generations—while current satellite density has already crossed the threshold that the model warned about in 1978. Each smash makes more fragments, each fragment raises the odds of the next smash, and the process feeds itself for decades without another rocket ever leaving the ground. Past a certain density of debris, collisions stop being accidents and become weather. Kessler wasn’t predicting a disaster. He was describing a threshold.
Artificial intelligence has become a defining feature of modern warfare, transforming military operations in conflicts such as Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine. AI-powered drones, autonomous surveillance systems, satellite imagery analysis, and machine-learning algorithms enable faster target identification, battlefield intelligence, and real-time decision-making. Militaries also use AI to coordinate logistics, analyze massive volumes of intelligence, detect cyber threats, and counter disinformation campaigns across digital platforms. While these technologies improve operational efficiency and precision, they also raise significant ethical and legal concerns regarding civilian casualties, accountability for autonomous weapons, algorithmic bias, and the increasing risk of rapid escalation in future armed conflicts.
Moss Landing Battery Fire Science Symposium, 7 August 2026 9 am to 4 pm, will feature scientists studying impacts of the 2025 Vistra battery storage facility fire in Moss Landing. Presenters from EMBER (Estuary Monitoring of Battery Emissions and Residues resulting from the Moss Landing Battery Fire) will speak about metal concentrations in soils, water, and animals in Elkhorn Slough. Researchers from UCSC will report on metal concentrations in human hair and in dust and insects near residences.
SOME GOOD NEWS
from Big Brother Watch in UK: Thanks to the 184,000+ who petitioned against mandatory digital ID, Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to scrap it. See Checkpoint Britain: the dangers of digital ID and why privacy must be protected. Alas, social media restrictions—starting with government-imposed social media curfew—could lead to a de facto mandatory ID regime for the internet. These restrictions also treat young people, not Big Tech companies, as the problem.
New York has become the first state to impose a data center moratorium.
El Habib Ben Amara reports that centuries-old Algerian architecture and urban planning created cool houses without electricity—by designing with understanding of sun, wind, shade and water. How did modern civilization, with its technological supremacy, lose the ability to achieve what traditional builders did with earth and wind alone?
Check out Rob Lewis’ wonderful discussion about our changing definition of nature.
These cities turned parks into orchards, where anyone can pick fruit for free. Andernach, Germany, population 30,000, planted 101 varieties of tomatoes (with no pesticides) in the town center and invited everyone to take whatever they wanted. The following year Andernach did the same with beans. The next year, it was onions. After that, the city planted fruit trees, lettuce, zucchini, berries and herbs. Since 2018, Andernach has been part of the Edible Cities Network, about 150 cities around the world with fruit trees and vegetable gardens in public places for anyone to access free of charge.
After Post Modern Times café in Minneapolis stopped charging for food, its profit went up.
Would you upgrade to paid and buy me a monthly bag of apples?
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