DAGR Weekly Reader W4-APR
“Climate change, after all, doesn’t discriminate between species—it’s coming for all of us.”
~ Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Mother Jones
Two to close out Earth Month: Rare Earths
How it can be done right: Norway
Ulefos, Norway is a village on top of an old mine. Underneath, and not that far down, is one of Europe’s biggest deposits of rare earths. It could solve Europe’s need to reduce dependence on imports and it looks to be proceeding with due environmental diligence.
DW Planet A, 2025. 13 mins
The True Cost Of Mining Electric Car Battery Metals
In 2024, Business Insider took an honest look at the environmental and human damages of rare earth extraction. While larger corporate efforts showed that cleaner ways are possible, it remains that those are applied where regulations are strong. And large companies can be just as destructive as artisan subsistence plots, especially when local farming/fishing gets in the way of profit.
True Cost, Insider News Marathon - Business Insider, 2024. 33 mins
Anatomy of an Extinction
How climate disasters, human sprawl—and now Trump—are coming for America’s largest salamander, the Eastern Hellbender. Happy Earth Day!
Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Mother Jones, Apr 21, 2025
Sludge Contaminated 10,000 Acres of Farmland. What Should Be Done?
Reported from PFAS-contaminated farms and an abandoned textile mill in South Carolina. For years a textile mill gave farmers its sewage sludge as free fertilizer. Today the land is full of “forever chemicals.” Will Trump’s EPA help here? Will mill owners have to pay, or will taxpayers foot the bill for a ‘superfund’ site?
Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times, Apr 21, 2025 - Gift Link
Earth Day, April 22, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson digs into the string of enviro disasters that led up to and continued after the establishment of Earth Day.
Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, Apr 23, 2025
Commentary: If Democracy Collapses in America, It Won’t Be the First Time
Anti-democratic efforts are not new in America. We don’t have to import history lessons from abroad to learn of dangers and atrocities a successful collapse of democracy can bring.
Christopher Chavis, The Daily Yonder, Apr 22, 2025
Trump Turns COVID.gov into MAGA Fan Service
It used to provide medical information. Now it’s just Fauci hate and lab leak theories.
Jonathan Cohn, The Bulwark, Apr 23, 2025
'Students are very afraid': Is Trump’s college crackdown legal?
The Trump administration is waging war on academia — from the institutions themselves to the students who attend them. On this episode of “Can They Do That” MSNBC Legal Correspondent Lisa Rubin dives deep into the legal details of Trump's attacks on academia with Columbia University Law Professor and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, Jamal Greene.
MSNBC, Apr 24, 2025 - 40 min video
Jon Stewart & Rory Stewart on Trump’s Restructured Global Order | The Weekly Show
As Trump's actions and rhetoric rock the global economy, Jon is joined by Rory Stewart, former British Cabinet Minister and current co-host of “The Rest is Politics.” Together, they examine the rapidly shifting relationships between the U.S. and its traditional allies. And more. A quiet, thoughtful conversation. 75 min video.
The Weekly Show, Apr 24, 2025