News for April, 2026

If you take one thing from this posting, it should be the levelling trend at the end of this graph! - Climate Trace

As usual, there were a flood of articles this month. Space and time (both yours and mine) mean that only a fraction of them get presented here.

A couple of factors determine which ones I select. Personal choice, of course. I also try to represent themes (the take up of renewable energy, for instance) rather than more of the same. This can sometimes lead to the impression that not a lot is happening in some areas. If you think ICE activities have died down, you would be wrong.

The classifications inspired by Sergio Leone ('Good', 'Bad', 'Ugly') are selected based on whether article indicates progress ('good'), a backslide or misstep ('bad'), and whether the backsliding is intentional ('ugly'). They are placed in the reverse order so that the good is the last thing you scan, and be left with 'reasons to be cheerful'.

How I sort 'em

If you are trying to keep pace with news at your own pace and preference, you can refer to the list of news feeds in the margin. It is well worthwhile registering with the RSS feed from interesting but intermittently update sites, like (ahem!) this one, and let your browser do the background refresh for you.

Anyway, on with the show... 

Environment

It is said that bad laws were made to be broken. The theme for ugly this month seems to be to apply this principle to good environmental laws as well.

the Ugly

• The US Forestry service is being dismantled. Look at it from Trump's perspective: why look after a resource you are intending to simply pillage while you're still alive?
• Meanwhile, Congress uses an obscure law to allow mining in a formerly protected Minnesotan wilderness.
• The point of marine refuges is to provide an undisturbed area where sea life can recover and spill over into surrounding areas where some sustainable harvesting may occur. So, of course, trawler fleets in the UK continue to pillage them as well. 

the Bad 

The fate of Australia's alpine ash forests? - photo from Cam Walker

• Last month seemed to have a rolling list of species that were being saved or rediscovered. This month balances the score a little with news of some who aren't doing so well:
• Swift parrot habitat loss has their number down to under a thousand
• Frequent wildfires have caused Australia's alpine ash forests to be declared endangered 
• even common birds, like fairy wrens, are coming under threat from climate change
• ... which is now having observable effects on fur seal and emperor penguin populations 
•  Logging leads to regrowth, leads to... more intense bushfires.
• In the UK, illegal waste disposal is big (crime) business.
• The likelihood of a collapse in the Gulf Stream current has been significantly increased. 

the Good 

•  Despite the new additions to the endangered list, there are still some points of cheer:
• Hope that bilbies are being successfully reintroduced to the Mallee Cliffs National Park
• Cloud jaguars have been sighted in Honduras mountains after a ten year absence.
• Micro gardens have a macro impact. (or: could your nature strip become more than just a boring patch of grass?)
• Trump's attempts to sack the US do get smacked down occasionally. Case in point: a recent court finding upholding the status of the Endangered Species Act.
• Australia now boasts the world's largest network of privately protected habitat. (while a worthy initiative, it should be noted that such undertakings puts the failings of big businesses onto smaller shoulders.) 

Climate

The good news underlying the bad is that global emissions continue to plateau, it's not due to a pandemic-induced economic slowdown  and that no one gets to reside in the White House forever.

the Ugly

• Big tech companies seem to be reconsidering their climate sustainability goals, because AI.
• France removes climate from the agenda of G7 environmental talks. 'Donald wouldn't like that' is a hell of a way to form global policies.
• The sort of petty 'sin signalling' we are up against: Florida's Governor signs a bill (on Earth Day) forbidding city councils from monitoring their emissions.

the Bad

• The IPCC is facing a funding crisis.
• 'Summers' are getting longer by six days/decade on a global average. In Sydney, it's more like 15.
• Extreme humid heat waves, with wet bulb temperatures of 35+C, are considered to be the limit of human survival (to say nothing of other animals). They set the opening scene for Kim Stnaley Robinson's 'Ministry of the Future'. While these dire conditions haven't been observed (yet), new studies have found that lesser ones are already killing older people.
• Not just another El Nino brewing, a 'super' El Nino. 

the Good

• CO2 measurements are published daily by the Scripps Institute. Have you ever wondered how they make those measurements? 
• Last year, the International Court of Justice ruled that states owed a duty of care for damages arising from climate change. A recent legal opinion seeks to clarify the fiduciary duties that company directors have under this ruling. While it's still vague on details, it's clear that there will be some. Big tech companies take note.
• In the wake of the clear-felling of climate regulations that Trump is engaging in, some people are wondering how to build back something better after he's gone.
• While global emissions remain massive, the IEA has found they have not grown in the past year.
• Climate leaders keep going, despite some of the dire forecasts and resistance (especially from the Trump administration). How are they coping?
• Bill McKibben thinks it time to stand up to the 'climate hushers'. 

Energy

This section may seem a bit, erm.. light. It's not that there's no news (quite the opposite, actually: I tagged over 50 articles!) but the news is similar and has the same message: despite Trump's efforts to quash it, renewable energy is now dominating, and the follow-on effects are starting to be seen.

If the overall feel is slanted toward the bad and the ugly, it is mainly because the bad and the ugly are becoming increasingly... inventive. 

the Ugly

• Puerto Rico was on the point of implementing an energy plan based on solar power. Then Trump cancelled funding. 
• The American taxpayers' money was needed elsewhere. Following his success with Total, Trump has just paid two more companies to walk away from their offshore wind projects.
• Of course oil companies should be immune from prosecution for climate related damages! (and, of course it beggars the point about why they might need such immunity in the first place, but that's what Republicans are proposing)

the Bad

•  Remember 'wind turbine syndrome'? It's making a comeback... via solar panels. Further proof that a good conspiracy theory has no need of logic.

the Good

• In 2025, fossil fuel use fell in every OECD country. 
• It's been clear for a while on multiple measures, but the supply vulnerabilities shown by the closure of the Straits of Hormuz may be the point at which a renewables future became psychologically inevitable. (and yes, all credit for this is being given to Trump, who is nursing a wounded foot)
• Build it, and they will come. South Australia is poised for an economic boom as industries are attracted to a state with near 100% (and cheap) renewables. 

Health

There is a reason why I refer to RFK Jr the 'Dead Kennedy'. There is a difference, though: the  '80s punk band could at least claim satire as an excuse for singing songs about killing the poor (with property preserving neutron bombs). Alas, satire was denied access to Covid vaccines...

 the Ugly

• Under Kennedy, the CDC is blocking papers showing the benefits of Covid and shingles vaccines 
• ... and an annual flu vaccine? What do the healthy boys and girls of the US military need that for?
• So how did the dead Kennedy get confirmed as Secretary of Health? He lied  (which should have been obvious to those on the Confirmation Committee)

the Good

• Vaccinations aren't the only medical practice Kennedy has been targetting. He issued a declaration denying funding to any hospital providing gender affirming care to youths. This has now been blocked by a Federal Court decision.
• An effective treatment for pancreatic cancer? 

Resistance

the Ugly

• ICE continues to retain dangerous, illegal immigrants (who are, more often than should be, neither dangerous, nor illegal, nor even immigrants) and to oversee their deaths in custody. That's 15 this year, so far.
• Make that 16. 'Custody' implies a duty of care. It isn't discharged by ICE dumping a blind person with a serious medical condition by a (closed) doughnut shop in the middle of Winter. The subsequent death has been ruled a homicide.
• The Voting Rights Act has been effectively voided by the US Supreme Court. Republican governors immediately begin planning to re-distribute voting districts to their advantage, Louisiana even going so far as to postpone elections in progress.

the Bad

• Never mind basking in the reflected glow of people going to the Moon, once more Trump has proposed a budget that wipes out most of NASA's funding, and once more the Planetary Society has had to spend effort lobbying to have that funding retained. (As it happens, most Republicans are also inclined to retain funding that flows to their electoral districts, but it's a dance that serves no purpose.)
• One thing preventing history from being rewritten is the 'Wayback Machine', an online archive that retains historical copies of web pages and documents. A number of journalism organisations are now moving to restrict access to their own archives. Why is this a concern? The Wayback Machine is, itself, a valuable journalism resource. Also, ask yourself who owns the media.

the Good 

• The current fashion in fear driven legislation isn't limited to the US, of course. NSW enacted legislation restricting protest marches following last year's terror attack in Bondi. It has been struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Terrorism is not to be tolerated, but nor should attempts to dilute the term, either. Otherwise, it may be applied to any activity deemed to be doubleplus ungood by the state.
• After a shutdown lasting 76 days, Republicans have finally passed a bill to fund the DHS, after withdrawing funding pertaining to ICE. (While the DHS has been shut down, ICE has been getting funded from prior allocations)
• Out, but not down. Ex- NASA climate scientist, Kate Marvel wants to you to keep fighting for science. 

Housing

There are no housing related articles this month. However, it should be noted that a residence of good character and front facing windows must be in wont of a feline to display to passers by.

Yes, I am referring to the Wedge Cat Tour; a quaint Minneapolis custom that has been held each June since 2017.

No, I wasn't aware of it prior to seeing this link either. (the dog remains unimpressed)

Transport

the Ugly

• The UN was considering a plan to reduce shipping emissions, until Trump called it a 'green scam' and threatened tariffs on any nation supporting such a plan.  

the Bad 

• A shocking statistic: most cargo ships are powered by fossil fuel... and 40% of them are used to transport fossil fuel. Imagine if... but no (see above)

the Good

• Latest in the 'you can electrify any vehicle' stakes: a 600 tonne mining excavator (that can be used for other things than coal!).
• While on large vehicles, 54% of trucks sold in China last Decamber were electrical. 
• The silver lining to Trump's idiot Gulf War take 3: it has resulted in a boom in ebike usage.
• ... and boosted EV sales in Europe by 50% 
• another bit of fallout: NSW plays catch up on EV charging stations and electric trucks.
• Yes, a car can move faster, but can it get you to where you want to go faster? And why did you want to go there? Who's doing the driving? Welcome to the social speed calculator.

Plaigue

When I first coined 'Plaigue' as the title for a section covering the disconcerting rise in AI use, I was thinking in terms of its rapid proliferation. It did not occur to me that it really did present the same risks to society as a virulent memetic pathogen. Yet, here we are, with terms like 'AI psychosis' and 'cognitive surrender' being bandied about.

'Chatbot take the wheel!' is the latest form of people being too lazy to think.

Nobody appears more affected by these ailments than the people who are involved in the development and marketing of LLMs. 

None of this is good. Still, people are waking up to the risks.

the Ugly

• You would not be expected to set foot in a plane whose system checks were false 10-20% of the time. Yet, that is the rate at which Google AI supplies wrong answers. It adds up to a lot of bad advice when queries number in the trillions. Even so, a lot of people keep right on using, and...
• Why think when you can outsource? “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter” - Sam Altman: CEO for OpenAI. He is increasingly coming across as someone high on their own supply.
• The term coined for what Altman, and anyone else who has become over-reliant on answers from LLM is 'Cognitive surrender'. It might also be described as 'Claude, take the wheel!'

the Bad

• If you've ever been told you're suffering from 'bixonimania', relax: you aren't. You can't be, because it doesn't exist. As an experiment, scientists created this imaginary ailment to see how AI treated it. To their amazement, it spread references to it virally. More worryingly, references to the illness started appearing in peer-reviewed medical journals, suggesting that peer reviewers and researchers alike were relying on AI to do their literature searches, and weren't checking them.
• Western Sydney suburbs are already having problems with high Summer temperatures. Unsurprisingly, local city councils are not keen on data centres that may generate enough heat to raise surrounding temperatures by 2C. (not to mention the noise, gas pollution, and water consumption)
• To give one example of the scale of the issue: a data centre planned for Utah is estimated to require twice as much energy than the entire state does currently. (at least the water will be recycled)
• A more immediate effect: data centre demand for RAM memory has caused prices to double increase 

the Good

• Since when is Trump in the good news section? Since a data centre project associated with him stalls before it starts. Trump does appear to have had a thriving career in bankruptcies but, apart from the schadenfreude to be had, this does highlight how overblown the data centre rush has become.
• Monterey Park, Ca, has become the first city council in the US to ban data centres. There will be others.
• Set aside all the bad advice, and hive mind zombie apocalypse scenarios that might arise from mass cognitive surrender. The real catastrophe threatened by rampant data centre grow is their profligate use of gas powered generators. This is bad for many reasons (apart from the obvious). Yet it need not be so: Volts has energy wonk Jigar Shah explain.
• In March, the Australian Department of Industry published a fairly comprehensive 'Statement of Expectations'. It isn't binding (land use is the responsibilty of state and local councils), but it does  lay out what conditions planners for data centres should meet before being approved.