This is the website page in The Multiplural World of ‘Ecology news headlines and analysis’ for the current month of August 2025. Items with red headlines indicate they were published in full on the home page of the website; notice of these are emailed to website subscribers. Comments and information in square brackets [ ] are by the website editors. All previous months to that of ‘Ecology news headlines and analysis’ (since March 2024) are archived here.
Ecology news and analysis, August 2025
Beavers were cruelly slaughtered for centuries in North America by colonialists from Europe; today, contrite descendants of the colonialists acknowledge the animals have an important role in slowing wildfires.
References:
* News report by Canada’s state broadcaster, Aug 31, 2025
* Beaver-based restoration, report by Shauna Doll and Jennifer Rogers, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, July 24, 2025 In a time when catastrophic conflagrations are becoming a new normal, an unlikely character is being welcomed back onto the landscape after generations of slaughter
‘Ecosocialists’ (Trotskyist doctrine) of imperialist Australia use conference to reach into Asia with their divisive and counter-revolutionary program opposing China’s socialist path and supporting the U.S./NATO war in Ukraine. Reference: ‘Ecosocialism 2025’ conference to take place in Melbourne on Sept 5-7, 2025 [This upcoming conference has nothing to do with a genuine fight against the existential threat by the imperialist-driven, global warming disaster. And that is an understatement.]
Trump regime fires the head of the Centers for Disease Control for refusing to bow to health secretary Kennedy’s anti-vaccine and anti-science policies, NBC News, Aug 27, 2025
Wildfires driven by global warming are reversing progress in reducing air pollution in North America, new report says, Agence France presse (AFP), Aug 28, 2025 …”This cannot be repeated enough: particulate matter remains the greatest external threat to human health on Earth, period,” says Michael Greenstone, an economics professor at the University of Chicago who co-created the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI). “It’s worse than tobacco smoke. It’s worse than child and maternal malnutrition. It’s worse than road accidents. It’s worse than HIV-AIDS, worse than anything for losses of human life.”…
Related: Wildfires are reversing Canada’s progress on improving air quality, CBC News, Aug 27, 2025 Canada experienced its worst air pollution levels since 1998 during its record wildfire year of 2023, according to a new report released today by the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index (AQLI)…
[Leaders of the U.S. and Canadian governments have responded to the ALQI report by saying they are confident that a deepening of their proxy war in Ukraine and sharp rises in military spending will go a long way to addressing the rise in wildfires and the rising losses of human life caused by resulting air particulate pollution. “Our governments’ multi-billion dollar increases in weapons manufacture show just how serious we are in tackling this issue,” a panel of scientists newly created by the two governments has stated. “We are thankful that so many of our our respective populations are bowing down to this policy course and sitting at home on their hands instead of mobilizing in the streets and workplaces to oppose imperialist war and the catastrophic global warming this causes. We note, especially, how the environmental movement and its ‘ecosocialist’ sideshow have succumbed to war fever and fallen silent.”]
China is the world’s leader in transitioning to non-fossil fuel energy and is not taking its foot off the pedal, report in South China Morning Post, Aug 26, 2025 (read the report here in pdf format: China is the world’s leader in transitioning to non-fossil fuel energy)
[Twenty five per cent of all consumed energy in China could come from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030. This path is essential to the national security and the health of China’s people. But this should not be confused with the imperative of a degrowth path for China and for all of humanity. The barrier to this remains the expansion imperative of capitalist imperialism and the warmaking which is fundamental to how this system operates. China can hardly overcome all of this on its own. Herein lies the crux of whether the people of the world will succeed in averting ecological and societal collapse. The collapse is rapidly accelerating in this first half of the 21st century; it is not for some far-distant future.]
Cancelling research into mRNA vaccines is the highest irresponsibility, editorial, Nature magazine, Aug 15, 2025 …The mRNA vaccine technology that played a key part in saving millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic should be feted to the skies. Instead, US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced last week that the US federal government is terminating 22 grants worth nearly US$500 million for projects researching messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines…
Related:
* China’s mRNA vaccine research and development: A game changer, report published by HROne (human resources company), Mar 17, 2025
* China approves first homegrown mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, for emergency use, report by China Global Television Network (CGTN), Mar 22, 2023
A reminder to readers of China’s Covid-19 response: [The rate of death and injury from Covid-19 in China was a tiny fraction of that of the USA and other, Western imperialist powers. A tiny fraction; laughably tiny. The USA suffered 333,985 cases of Covid-19 per million population; China recorded 347 cases per million. The USA suffered 3,642 deaths per million population; China recorded four! (source: Worldometer) These numbers mean nothing to Western governments and media; they have worked overtime to pillory China’s Covid-19 record and deflect and distract attention from the facts. That’s because these agencies do not care about human life; the proof is in their ongoing support to Apartheid, Judeo-fascist Israel and its supposed ‘right to defense’. (The apartheid regime there has no such right under international law, the latter being an admittedly feeble concept in this era of warmaking imperialism.) ]
The debilitating Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) surges globally thanks to global warming, including in China where it is previously unknown, New York Times, Aug 18, 2025 (here in pdf format: The debilitating Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) surges globally) Disease surveillance globally has been weakened by the abrupt cuts in funding being announced by the Trump administration in Washington. It has been supporting much of this work in low-income countries; now this is coming undone, as with mRNA vaccine research and development, Two vaccines currently in use are expensive, with their use largely restricted to travelers from high-income countries. Neither vaccine currently has the kind of WHO recommendation that might lead to accelerated development of an affordable product. In China, public health officials are now going house to house to eliminate stagnant water serving as a breeding ground for the mosquitos carrying the virus.
Related: Chikungunya fact sheet, World Health Organization, April 2025
Honeybees are dying en masse in the United States but thriving in China, South China Morning Post, Aug 18, 2025 Sixty two per cent of American bee colonies were wiped out in six months last year. No such collapse is occurring in China, and Chinese scientists are racing to improve anti-mite defences.
Wildfire fighters in the U.S. are getting sick and dying from smoke and the poisons it contains as the Forest Service fights against protective measures and the gov’t lays off staff at the CDC, special report in New York Times, Aug 17, 2025 (here in pdf format: Wildfire fighters in the U.S. are getting sick and dying from toxic smoke)
Another big win for the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine as plastic pollution talks in Geneva collapse, Associated Press, Aug 15, 2025 [The proxy war in Ukraine was, precisely, conceived to divert and distract attention from the global warming emergency in all of its dimensions. The global environmental movement fell for the ruse, hook, line and sinker, condemning Russia for the proxy war instead of condemning its perpetrators. The tragic outcome in Geneva was meant to be. Now what? Well, nothing. Nothing will change so long as the Western warmakers continue to have their way and those who should oppose such a course wallow in anti-Russia (and anti-China) prejudices.].
Related: From the Washington Post on Aug 15, 2025: …After spurning other global environmental meetings and efforts, the United States showed up in force in Geneva, Switzerland for landmark plastic treaty talks. The Trump administration opposes the production limits that many countries view as the main solution to plastics pollution and the global warming it causes. The talks broke apart early on the morning of August 15 after 11 tense days, leaving the multi-year attempt to curb the world’s plastic pollution at an impasse…
Background: Talks at UN in Geneva to create a global plastics treaty are near collapse, report by Health Policy Watch, Aug 11, 2025 (Latest news on August 14 reports that the talks remain on the brink of collapse.) [The U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine, beginning with the coup in Kiev in February 2014 and escalating since February 2022, marked the definitive abandonment by the Western imperialist powers of any pretense of concern and action in response to the global warming emergency. The existing, global environment movement, including its ‘ecosocialist’ component, has no response to this. It is rendered weak and ineffective because: 1. it lacks a serious program due to its rejection of a ‘degrowth’ path for human development, and 2. it has no understanding of modern-day imperialism and is therefore unwilling and incapable of opposing the current war drive by the imperialist powers. This war drive is specifically crafted to ‘distract and divert attention’ from the existential ecological and social crises currently rocking human societies; these crises can only worsen unless opposed.].
Canada burning as it wages war in Ukraine: Second-worst wildfire season on record as out-of-control wildfires are quickly becoming the new normal. Report by CBC News, Aug 14, 2025
Rising heat in Europe 1980 to 2025:
Gunman with five weapons opens fire on the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, hitting four buildings and killing one police officer, Associated Press, Aug 10, 2025 …In a statement, the ‘Fired But Fighting’ group of laid-off CDC employees opposing cuts to the agency by the Trump administration said, “Health Secretary Kennedy is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC’s workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety. These have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust.” [Kennedy has overseen the firings of nearly 2,000 employees of the CDC. Most recently, he has banned funding of mRNA vaccine research and manufacture by U.S. gov’t agencies.]
France’s huge wildfire is under control but will still burn for days, authorities say, France 24, Aug 8, 2025 The giant blaze in the southern department of Aude (‘Pays cathare’, pop. 375,000, adjacent to the Spain-France Mediterranean border) has burned through more than 17,000 hectares of land – an area bigger than Paris – killing one person, injuring 13 and destroying dozens of homes. The mountainous winemaking region of Corbières has been hit hard.
U.S. health secretary Kennedy to halt $500 million in vaccine projects, including all mRNA vaccines, report by Politico, Aug 5, 2025 [Of note, a recent legislative mandate has rescinded a requirement that U.S. military be vaccinated against COVID-19.].
Related: Kennedy cancels nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts, New York Times, Aug 5, 2025 (here in pdf format: Kennedy cancels nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts)
Hong Kong paralyzed by torrential rains, triggering floods and landslides, The Independent, Aug 5, 2025 359 mm of rain (14 inches) fell on August 5, the highest amount ever recorded in the city for a day in August.
Previously reported: At least 38 deaths in Beijing region caused by rainstorm flooding, Associated Press, July 29, 2025 …Nearly one year’s worth of rain has caused flooding, landslides washing away cars, evacuations and power knocked out around the Chinese capital, killing at least 38 people as rescue and relief work continues. The Beijing Daily reports that the city has received 54.3 centimeters (21.4 inches) of rain during the last four days, just a bit short of the 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) average rainfall which the city receives each year…
New climate study revisits link between air pollution in East Asia and global warming, South China Morning Post, Aug 3, 2025 Norwegian scientist Bjorn Samset says discovery that clean-up may contribute to warming shows intricate nature of climate change and dynamics at play (Read the report here in pdf format: New study revisits link between air pollution in East Asia and global warming)
China deploys breakthrough super steel for its newest nuclear fusion reactor under construction, report by Interesting Engineering, Aug 3, 2025 More than a decade in the making, the ‘China high-strength low-temperature steel No 1’ met key standards, handling 20 Tesla magnetic fields and withstanding 1,300 MPa pressure
Inside the radical downgrading of America’s claim to an environmental role. Report in New York Times, Sunday, Aug 3, 2025 (here in pdf format: Inside the radical downgrading of America’s claim to an environmental role)
[This past week, the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S. government announced it would revoke its own ability to address the global warming emergency. This is the latest move in an extraordinary pivot away from science-based responses to the environmental emergency. This pivot can be traced back to the U.S./NATO proxy war undertaken in Ukraine beginning in 2014 and then significantly escalated in February 2022. The war was conceived precisely to divert attention from the growing global warming emergency and its deadly impacts. these are an existential threat to human civilization, such as it exists. This still-largely capitalist civilization is in the grip of a sharp, downward spiral of social, economic and environmental conditions, with no end in sight.
[The global environmental movement has been bludgeoned into silence over rising imperialist war due to its ignorance and historic prejudices against Russia and China. The historic left in the imperialist countries emanating from the 20th century has all-but surrendered to the war drive, much of going so far as to call upon the imperialist countries to increase their arms supplies to far-right Ukraine and increase their harsh sanctions against the Russia Federation and its peoples! Global imperialism has increasingly turned to warfare to distract from the rising economic chaos of its capitalist order and distract from the ecological emergency, all the while continuing to loot the natural resources of the planet and increase greenhouse gas emissions, while boosting the use of police and military repression to prevent any meaningful response by popular forces to the economic and social chaos and the warming emergency.]
Advisory opinion of the UN International Court of Justice on obligations of states in respect of climate change, excerpt from the weekly briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, July 30, 2025 … Among its findings, the Court holds that states are legally obliged to take measures to prevent and mitigate the effects of climate change under international law, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, and customary rules… As you are aware, advisory opinions do not carry binding legal force, however the ICJ is the principal judicial authority of the UN system and its stance will therefore inevitably influence the future development of international climate law… The Russian Federation’s response and assessment of its implications will be formulated following a comprehensive interdepartmental analysis, involving representatives of the academic community. We will return to this matter on multiple occasions. (end excerpt)
China investing US$350 million in Angolan agriculture to boost food security and common human development, South China Morning Post, Aug 2, 2025 (read the report here in pdf format: China investing US$350 million in Angolan agriculture to boost food security and common human development)
