On January 15 author and activist Chris Jones launched a longshot political campaign as a Democrat to serve as Iowa’s 18th agriculture secretary. His message: hold agriculture accountable for its colossal contamination. www.circleofblue.org/2026/opinion...

Michigan in 2025 issued nationally significant requirements big livestock and poultry producers to more safely manage the brown tide of manure they spread each year on farm fields. They are so encouraging to movement to stem farm pollution. www.circleofblue.org/2026/great-l...

America attacked Venezuela overnight. Pres. Maduro will be prosecuted for drugs and corruption. Recall US attacked Panama in 1989 to remove Noriega on similar charges. U.S. lost 24 soldiers then. Panama casualties were 500 soldiers and civilians. Maduro operation yielded no U.S. dead, Trump said.

No one I know considers their lives near the forests and clean waters of the upper Great Lakes as anything other than a blessing. All of what we’ve accomplished in the Great Lakes is in mortal danger from a president and compliant allies in Congress. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Court rulings are poised to arrive next year on operation of Line 5 oil pipeline that crosses the Great Lakes. They come amid a new era of energy demand and old technology to supply it. www.circleofblue.org/2025/great-l...

Neither Catalonia, Spain, nor Iowa took into account the serious consequences to water of raising many animals indoors – until wells and streams and lakes and rivers were thoroughly poisoned by nitrates. It’s the same story almost everywhere on Earth. www.circleofblue.org/2025/agricul...

It’s useful to know that the dreadful leadership and debilitating governance that is trying to wreck the American experience is an outlier among the nations of the world. I spent time in Barcelona this month. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Chris Jones, former University of Iowa water quality researcher and farm pollution activist may run for Iowa Sec. of Agriculture. If he does, and looks like he will, it would be most significant race for crucial agriculture post since Jim Hightower ran and won Texas Ag Commissioner race in 1982.

Times reports that $1.2 billion in Food For Peace program, dropped by DOGE wrecking crew that took out USAID, will be restored in ‘end shutdown’ proposal. Reflects not weakening of anti “woke” view of Whitehouse. Rather power of Corn Belt agriculture.

Why is SNAP so crucial to people that need help? Because the $9 billion SNAP costs per month to feed 42 million low income Americans amounts to an average $214 per person per month. It’s a big help and so many families receiving benefits include working adults.

Here’s another crucial, despicable, dangerous detail about the White House assault on health and environment. The Trump administration doesn’t want Americans to know about trace farm chemicals in water. See: www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

The world paused for more than a moment to mourn and honor Jane Goodall. For just one mournful yet brilliant day — the first day of October 2025, the day Jane Goodall died — the deepening menace of our era was eased by the shining example of her life. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Jane Goodall’s death is a blessed reminder of how intelligence, grace, and courage changes the world. She displayed all the essential virtues of an activist intent on assuring Mother Earth's safety. I wrote her obituary published this morning in the Times. static01.nyt.com/images/2025/10…

A shameful retreat is occurring in the global work to secure clean water and safe sanitation for millions of people.The end of U.S.A.I.D. is wrecking business plans four thousands of American grain producers who are perilously close to losing their farms. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Whatever Congress decides on the EPA budget, state environment departments next year will receive much less federal support. The consequence is erosion in the quality of natural abundance and the condition of the economy. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

More impediments to facing up to Iowa’s worst in nation water pollution. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Wake up America. Trump’s assault on environmental statutes and agencies is for real. Goal: MAPA. Make America Polluted Again. See Iowa for what’s coming for every state: www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Changing definition of “harm” in Endangered Species Act renders the most powerful conservation law essentially useless in protecting species. www.circleofblue.org/2025/water-p...

People will die. DOGE cuts weakened Weather Service role as primary warning system. First public evidence emerges of Trump-backed program of forcing valuable federal workers out of their jobs. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/u...

Are we really going to attack another country in Middle East on pretense of stopping a weapon of mass destruction. This is same playbook used to attack Iraq! Bio weapons then. Nuclear bomb now. Stop this craziness.

This should be easy for President Trump. It’s the same playbook he’s already dismantled in 2016 election. Iraq and Iran. Destroy the weapon of mass destruction. Bio weapon in first. Nuclear bomb in second. Why are we even considering this dangerous joke?

Thoughtless in the White House. Trump wants to wreck Great Lakes restoration. www.circleofblue.org/2025/great-l...

Pressure on a blockbuster weed killer that may harm people. www.circleofblue.org/2025/agricul...

The President is on a rampage to wreck America’s best values and principles. The environment is a feature of the purge. Circle of Blue www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Is water the unmentioned resource in Trump’s campaign to control Greenland? There’s a lot of it there, ready to monetize for a fiercely thirsty planet. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

When Trump/MAGA talk about a “hoax” watch out. Trump called the virus “the Democrats’ new hoax” in Feb. 2020. Over a million Americans died from the virus. Trump/MAGA call climate change a “hoax.” Thousands of Americans have died in recent years from climate-supercharged fire, flood, storms.

Dirtier communities, degraded air and water, more exposures to hazardous compounds will grievously injure the economic advantage America has gained from its cleaner environment. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion...

Bet that MAGA world is paying close attention to Stephen A. Smith. Dude is talking politics with same poise and polish that he brings to sports commentary. Without running for anything he’s polling. Is Stephen A. The man…of the moment? Stay tuned.

Never before has the United States confronted an attack on science like the one President Trump launched in January 2025. For the first time in U.S. history, raw ideological menace is blocking federal funding that supports scientific advance. www.circleofblue.org/2025/opinion....

My prayer is that this moment in our national life produces a figure like Ali, capable of surpassing courage and love and instinct, a leader who can guide the country away from its contemporary path of menace, and incompetence. modeshift.org/419/muhammad...

Trump’s effort to change the market for straws – like efforts to influence the sale of clean cars or charging stations or solar panels or any of the other equipment intended to make the planet safer – have nothing to do with “symbolism over science.” www.circleofblue.org/2025/water-q...

Trump admin is screening “sensitive topics,” and stopping federal employees from attending conferences. This from Bonneville Power staffer who cannot attend conferences that touch: Climate goals Climate change Equitable energy burdens Diversity, equity, and inclusion Environmental justice

Good for climate, great for water. Renewable energy accounted for 93% of new electrical generating capacity in U.S. in 2024. Solar energy way up. Wind not as fast. This comes as Trump targets clean energy in favor of polluting and water damaging fossil fuels. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump funding block affects some of his key constituencies, farmers among them. Signed contracts for grants under Climate Smart programs, a $3 billion promise from the USDA, have been halted. Even Iowa Soybean Association “contractually owed $11 million." civileats.com/2025/02/11/t...

CeCe Butcher is one of Kentucky's most respected artists. I visited her late last year to write this portrait in my ModeShift.org blog. See: modeshift.org/419/cece-but...