Adam Becker is a science journalist and astrophysicist. He has written for The New York Times, BBC, NPR, Scientific American, New Scientist, Quanta, Undark, Aeon, and others. He also recorded a video series with the BBC, and has appeared on numerous radio shows and podcasts, including Ologies, The Story Collider, and KQED Forum.
Whats the big idea?
Tech billionaires like to hype up delusional doomsday fantasies in which they are the saviors and overlords of civilization. Many people may just laugh or disregard these outlandish claims, but a closer look reveals the scary truth of how seriously, specifically, and consequentially these thought leaders are committed to their ridiculous visions for the future. They abstain from making meaningful choices to improve the here and now because of their faith in unreasonable techno-solutions. It is important that society stays aware that their nightmares and promised utopias are founded in fiction.
Below, Becker shares five key insights from his new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valleys Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity. Listen to the audio versionread by Becker himselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Tech billionaires have ludicrously implausible power fantasies about the future.
Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other tech billionaires have made surprisingly outlandish claims about what a good future for humanity should look like. Elon Musk has spoken repeatedly about the need to set up a colony on Mars. He has said that hes going to put a million people on Mars by 2050 by sending one rocket launch a day for years, and that the colony needs to be self-sufficient, surviving even if the supply rockets from Earth stop coming. Musk contends that this is vital for the future of humanity, claiming that our species will go extinct if it doesnt happen soon. He claims Mars is our lifeboat for civilization.
This is all pure fantasy: Mars is too inhospitable to allow a million people to live there anytime remotely soon, if ever. The gravity is too low, the radiation is too high, theres no air, and the Martian dirt is filled with poison. Theres no plausible way around these problems, and thats not even all of them. Nor does the idea of Mars as a lifeboat for humanity make sense: Even after an extinction event like an asteroid strike, Earth would still be more habitable than Mars. Mammals survived the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs, but no mammals could survive unprotected on Mars today.
Putting all of that aside, if Musk somehow did put a colony on Mars, it would be wholly dependent on his company, SpaceX, for supplies. Thats one feature that tech oligarchs fantasies have in common: they all involve billionaires holding total control over the rest of us.
2. AI isnt going to be as good (or bad!) as the tech industry claims.
Silicon Valley billionaires and thought leaders have been making wild promises about AI. They claim that AI will soon become superintelligent, far outstripping human intellect, and this will lead to a total revolution in human civilizationif these godlike AIs dont destroy humanity first.
Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, says that superintelligent AI is coming within the next four years. He also claims that once we have it, every product and service will halve in price every two years as AI takes over the economy. Bill Gates has made similar claims, suggesting that AI will free us for a life of leisure as it caters to our every need. Other industry leaders claim AI will revolutionize science, ushering in an unprecedented era of discovery and near-magical technology.
Theres virtually no evidence for any of this: it is specious reasoning amplified by tech industry money and hype. These are narratives based on science fiction. They fundamentally misunderstand both the nature of intelligence and how current AI systems operate. Even calling something like ChatGPT AI is misleading; its a marketing term thats gotten way out of hand.
3. Were not colonizing space.
Tech billionaires like Musk and Bezos have dreamed of colonizing space for decades. Despite their promises, its not happening. Musks dreams of Mars are modest compared to some of the other specious fantasies spun by tech billionaires and the think tanks they fund.
Bezos doesnt want to put a million people in spacehe wants a trillion people living in a fleet of giant cylindrical space stations with interior areas bigger than Manhattan. He claims this is the best way to ensure future generations thrive. Otherwise, he warns, our species will stagnate on Earth. Yet such space stations would be staggeringly difficult and phenomenally dangerous to build. And Bezoss concerns about stagnation are based on a mix of faulty reasoning and an attachment to long-discredited ideas about sociology and history.
Others in the tech industry (or funded by tech billionaires) have advocated for a future beyond our solar system, pushing humanity to take over the galaxy or the entire universe. This is even more unlikely to work: the distances between stars are too great, and theres little reason to leave the solar system.
The impossible promise of an interstellar empire is held out as a shiny fantasy to justify the actions of tech billionaires. Musk has used the supposed need to colonize Mars as an excuse to ignore details like worker safety at SpaceX. Bezos has said that the pursuit of such a future is the most important thing he could be doing with his fortune, more important than addressing Earthbound problems here and now.
4. How Big Tech gets science wrong and distracts from present threats.
Tech industry leaders often present themselves as scientific experts on everything from human biology to astrophysics to nuclear fusion. The truth is that they are business leaders, not scientists, and frequently get in far over their heads when discussing scientific concepts. They believe that their wealth makes them general experts on everything.
Musk has repeatedly gotten facts about Mars wrong, even when hes been publicly corrected. He has repeatedly claimed that Mars can be terraformed (made into a more Earth-like planet) by using nuclear weapons to melt the Martian ice caps. Musk contends this would beef up the Martian atmosphere enough to allow humans to live there, but this isnt true: There arent nearly enough frozen gases in those ice caps to get the job done. When scientists pointed this out to him, he doubled down.
Hes not alone in this. Altman has never given good justification for his claims about AI. Bezoss ideas about space come from old plans from the 1970s that were later shown to be unworkable. These arent just careless mistakes about unimportant details. Getting these scientific facts wrong allows these tech billionaires to maintain faith in their power fantasies and gives them an excuse to ignore todays problems. Altmn has said that the AI systems he believes are coming soon will be able to solve global warming quickly and easily, and therefore, hes not concerned about new AI data centers requiring huge amounts of power. Pushing humanity toward the impossible goals of tech oligarchs will lead to destructive consequences for everyone.
5. The racist origins of the tech industrys core ideology.
Underneath the bizarre proclamations of tech billionaires, there is an ideology that technology can solve every problem, even fundamentally social and political problems like strife in the Middle East or political polarization in the United States. This ideology of technological salvation stems from a toxic mix of misunderstood science fiction, fringe religious movements, and racist pseudoscience.
The same online subcultures that spawned the ideas about AI that Altman, Musk, and the rest have swallowed also have connections with the American far-right and a troubling history of promoting scientifically discredited claims about fundamental differences in innate intelligence between different races. This goes hand in hand with their obsession with AI: They believe that AI can become godlike because they believe that intelligence is a single measurable trait corresponding to IQ, and that a sufficiently powerful AI would be able to simply dial up its IQ to an arbitrarily high number. But IQ has always been used for eugenics and institutional racism, and theres little evidence that it measures anything real about people. Its mostly just been used to say that some groups of people are inherently better than others.
Its no surprise that such stories are attractive to billionaires who want to justify their desire to remain in power over the rest of us forever. Recognizing the hollowness of these ideas is the first step to taking back our power. They want to set the terms on which we imagine the future, but the future isnt theirs for the taking. The future is something we all build together. They want us to believe that their promised utopias and nightmares are our only option. But in reality, the future is open.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Leaders today are stretched to the breaking point. Many managers enter their roles wanting to coach and care for their teams. But in todays workplace, that vision is colliding with a lengthening list of competing pressures: performance metrics, shifting workplace norms, and the unrelenting emotional labor of guiding teams through crisis after crisis.
As one manager told me, I want to be an empathetic leader and support my team, but we still have to make the numbers. Mostly, I just stay later myself. Another admitted, Last year I ended up in the hospital.
Newly released workplace data from Gallup reflects this worrying reality. In 2024, global engagement declined for just the second time in the past 12 years. It fell in 2020, as the pandemic swept across the globe, and it fell again last year. Importantly, Gallup reports, the drop in engagement was not due to worker engagement levels. It was entirely due to declining engagement levels among managers.
The rise and fall of manager engagement
So why are managers feeling less engaged on the job? Gallup cites workplace disruption over the past five years due to the pandemic, a hiring boom and bust, workplace restructurings, supply chain challenges, and changing expectations around technology and flexible work.
The political and social upheaval of recent years has likely also taken a toll, particularly as managers are often tasked to pull teams together through fractious times.
In a 2024 survey by mental healthcare provider Headspace, 98% of employees reported that global events affect their mental health at work. According to a recent report by mental health benefits broker Lyra, 85% of human resources leaders agree that managers are an integral part of our workplace mental health strategy. Unfortunately, just 39% also agree that they provide those managers with resources to support mental well-being at work. The disproportionate stress that managers face, the report adds, is due to high expectations for supporting workforce mental health paired with limited resources.
We can observe demographic differences in who is the most impacted, too. Notably, Gallup found the steepest declines in engagement among managers under 35 (down 5%) and female managers (down 7%). In my experience, these are also the managers most likely to absorb emotional labortaking on additional responsibility for their teams mental health while struggling to set boundaries for themselves. Its a recipe for leadership fatigue.
How managers can overcome leadership exhaustion
So where does that leave todays leaders, especially those torn between showing up for their teams and preserving their own capacity? The answer isnt to dial down your empathy: Its to practice that empathy in ways that are sustainable. That means setting boundaries, protecting your own energy, and modeling healthy leadership. Here are a few ways to start.
Stop fixing and start coaching. Its natural to want to help when a team member brings a problem to you, but jumping in with solutions can create dependency and drain your reserves. Instead, respond with curiosity: What have you tried so far? or What do you think would help? This approach empowers your team to develop resilience and creative thinking while also preserving your bandwidth. They may even come up with some great solutions that hadnt occurred to you.
Structure routines to preserve your own energy. Theres no rule that says good leaders need an open-door policy or a standing Monday meeting. If your current routines are depleting you, change them. Could you cluster one-on-ones into two days a week? Shift updates to asynchronous channels like email or Slack? Your energy is a finite resourcestructure your week to protect it.
Interrogate urgency. There are some emergencies, but not everything is an emergency. Preserve your energy for when you really need it. Start asking, Does this need to happen now? and Whats the worst that happens if this waits? Helping your team (and yourself) reset expectations around urgency can relieve pressure and improve decision-making.
Pursue your own goals. Your identity is not just the person holding everything together. Leaders need renewal, too. Whether its training for a marathon, learning to play the piano, or pursuing a professional certification, make sure you have something on the horizon thats just for you. These personal goals restore energy and remind you that your needs matter, too.
Delegate and celebrate others strengths. Delegation isnt just efficientit builds trust and engagement. Maybe youre not great at spreadsheets, or memo-writing, or icebreakers. Somebody on your team probably is. Hand over those responsibilities and praise mightily their superior expertise in the areas you despise, both to them and in front of others, so theyre recognized for that work. Identifying where others excel and delegating effectively can alleviate pressure and allow others to shine.
Leading with presence and compassion isnt easy, but it shouldnt be unsustainable. Empathy isnt a blank check on your energy or availability. By setting healthy boundaries, modeling sustainable practices, and protecting your own well-being, you can lead with strength and compassion over the long term.
Start with one small shiftsay no to a nonessential meeting, delegate one lingering task, or block an hour for something that restores you. Your team doesnt just need you to care. They need you to last.
In 2020, following ferocious wildfires across Southern California, Jasmin Singer and her wife, Moore Rhys, decided they had had enough of Los Angeles. They packed their bags and moved to New York state.
They debated between Ithaca and Geneva before finally picking Rochester, about a six-hour drive northwest from New York City. Rochester won out in part because of a more stable climate and progressive policies aimed at combating climate change, caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal.
We were all kinds of nutty about climate, said Singer about picking Rochester.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
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One of Americas first boomtowns and a former manufacturing hub, Rochester has captured the eye of some people looking to escape extreme weather events. Other midcentury industrial urban centers such as Buffalo, an hours drive from Rochester, and Duluth, Minnesota, have garnered attention in recent years for being known as climate havens. That is because they are less likely to experience events fueled and exacerbated by climate change, such as droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires.
Far from coasts, cities like Rochester, Buffalo, and Duluth dont face hurricanes or storm surges. At the same time, they are connected to large lakes, giving them an ample water supply and helping insulate against drought impacts.
Still, while anecdotes abound of people who are moving to such cities for climate reasons, there isnt yet evidence of a large demographic shift.
There hasnt been a clear signal that people are leaving to climate [friendly] regions, or regions with an abundant water resource, said Alex de Sherbinin, director and senior researcher at the Center for Integrated Earth System Information at Columbia University.
That is expected to change in coming decades, as climate will increasingly be a factor driving migration. It already is in many places around the world, particularly developing nations that lack the infrastructure and resources to withstand climate shocks. Each year, natural disasters force more than 21 million people from their homes, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Rochester has many draws
Originally from New Jersey, Singer said Rochester also appealed to her for a few reasons, even though she had never visited the city before the moveaffordable housing, its move toward increasing renewable energy use, and its proximity to eastern coastal cities, among them.
It was also important to be somewhere culturally diverse and friendly toward LGBTQ people, Singer said.
For Jon Randall, wildfires that hit the Bay Area in 2022 pushed him to leave California.
For six weeks you couldnt go outside, said Randall of the fires, adding that he and his wife searched online for potential places to live and retire. They picked Rochester, in part to be closer to family in Long Island, where he is originally from.
The average annual temperature in Rochester, which has 200,000 residents, hovers around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius)warmer than that in the summer and colder in the winter. The city is home to the University of Rochester, a private research institution, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, which sits in the southwest suburbs. Rochester is also known for its garbage platesfrench fries covered in hamburger meat and baked beans, a favorite local comfort food.
The city has adopted several progressive climate plans in recent years, including an initiative to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. Its part of a statewide push to build cleaner infrastructure, such as expanding its electric vehicle charging network. In 2019, the city launched an initiative that gives up to $9,000 to new resident homebuyers.
Climate is often one of many factors in decision to move
Studies have found that people rarely choose where they move based on climate reasons alone. They also weigh other factors such as affordability, family ties, and job opportunities.
People move where they think they can maintain a certain quality of life, and Rochesterwith its freshwater resourcescan make for a more attractive destination compared to other cities, de Sherbinin said.
Duluth garnered a climate-friendly reputation after commissioning an economic development package to attract newcomers in 2019. That same year, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called the city a climate refuge in a speech.
No such proclamations have been made by local officials recently, including in Rochester. Mayor Malik Evans office did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment for this story.
Rochester has a large Latino population
Rochester has welcomed a steady increase of Latinos over the last several years. Today, 61,000 residents in Monroe Country, the largest in the Rochester area, identify as Latino or Hispanic, with 70% Puerto Rican, according to a 2019 report by the Center for Governmental Research, a Rochester-based consulting firm.
Arelis Gomez moved to Rochester in 2016 from Puerto Rico in search of work opportunities and better education for her children, following her brother who had moved to New York City a few years prior.
Arelis Ayala, her mother, followed her daughter in 2019, finally making the move after wanting to leave since Hurricane Jorge in 1998, which hammered many parts of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico.
It was a really hard decision, Ayala said about her move to be closer to her daughter. Ayala and her daughter hope to eventually bring the rest of the family to Rochester.
Jonathan Gonzalez and his then-pregnant wife moved to Rochester after another major storm, Hurricane Maria, pummeled Puerto Rico in 2017.
It was pretty difficult to live in Puerto Rico those days, Gonzalez said, adding that everything, including hospitals, were closed because of no electricity.
His mother already had a home in Rochester, which made it a natural place to go. Starting over was hard, though Gonzalez feels at home now.
I love Rochester, he said.
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The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Toni Duncan of Rochester Institute of Technology and Nadia Lathan of The Associated Press
Parental leave is often treated as a checkbox issuehandled quietly by HR, focused on paperwork, and confined to a narrow window of time. But Amy Beacom, founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and author of The Parental Leave Playbook, is reshaping that view. With over 25 years of experience in executive coaching and organizational development, Beacom, who has an EdD degree in industrial and organizational psychology from Columbia University, partners with leading companies to transform parental leave into a strategic advantage for retention, equity, and leadership growth.
In this conversation, Beacom unpacks some of the biggest misconceptions about parental leaveand shares best practices and innovative strategies for companies of all sizes to better support employees before, during, and after this critical transition.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions organizations still hold about parental leave today?
First, that parental leave is solely about paid time off, administration, and compliance. When seen only through this limited lens, leave remains siloed in HR, and its broader potential is overlooked. In reality, parental leave can be a powerful driver of talent retention, employee well-being, DEI-B goals, leadership development, organizational culture, brand reputation, risk mitigation, and more.
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Second, that parental leave begins when a child arrives and ends when a parent returns to work. The full employee experience often spans over a yearstarting before leave is announced and continuing long after the return. Without meaningful support across all three phasespreparing for, during, and returning from leaveorganizations risk losing talent and falling short of their intended ROI [return on investment].And third, that parental leave is only about moms. Leave benefits should be offered equally to all parents, not just mothers. Parental leave also impacts managers, teams, clients, and HR. When its seen not as a personal issue for moms but as a professional experience many employees will face, it becomes clear that leave is a standard part of the employee lifecycle.
What are the core best practices every organizationregardless of sizeshould follow when it comes to supporting employees before, during, and after parental leave?
Treat this time as unique and sacred, because for your employees it is.
Begin with generous, gender-neutral paid family and medical leave benefits to create a strong foundation.
Create a clear, centralized, and well-communicated intranet webpage that includes anything and everything leave-related. Include your policy, all benefits, expectations, assessments, coaching, training, templates, resources, etc.
Provide structured guidance and planning support to both the employee and their manager before, during, and after leave.
Train managers to understand the law, but just as importantly, train them how to confidently navigate the leave and return process with intentionality, empathy, and clarity.
Normalize parental leave and return as a predictable part of the workplace experienceone that warrants consistent support and unlocks valuable opportunities for learning, growth, and leadership developmentnot as a disruption.
Larger companies often have more resources. What innovative or exemplary approaches have you seen from bigger organizations when it comes to parental leave planning and reintegration?At the enterprise level, we help organizations integrate parental leave into leadership development, link manager support to performance goals, and use data to track and improve leave experiences across teams and regions. In some cases, we’ve scaled manager training across dozens of countries; in others, we’ve leveraged our digital coaching hub to build community and learning at scale.
One of the most impactful and growing strategies we recommend is coachingusing certified RETAIN Parental Leave Coaches to support parents through leave and return, administer perinatal mental health screenings, and connect them to resources. Weve also helped organizations implement peer-based support like leave buddies and return-to-work cohorts to foster connection and ease the transition back to work.
One area were currently focused onalongside several large companiesis designing effective leave coverage systems that double as developmental opportunities for high-potential employees or team members. We’re also exploring new ways to structure compensation and performance metrics that feel both fair and motivating. These arent just perkstheyre strategic tools for driving retention and performance
Smaller organizations often cite resource constraints. What creative or low-cost strategies have you seen smaller employers use to support parental leave well?At the root of it, employees want to know they matter, especially during unpredictable times, and that simple act doesnt have to cost anything. The smaller employers we work with often shine through personalization and flexibilitythey use recognition in ways that feel meaningful and genuine.
I also recommend using tools like shared planning templates and checklists for leave transitions, designating an HR point person to act as a leave concierge, and holding team-based planning sessions so responsibilities are clearly handed off and reintegrated. A warm, proactive conversation and a culture of support go a long wayeven without a big budget.
Managers are often the linchpin in a parents leave experience. What support or guidance do they need?They need clear expectations, practical tools, and a safe, judgment-free space to ask questions. Most managers have never been trained on how to handle parental leave and return transitions and are afraid to say or do the wrong thing. Our evidence-based trainings provide communication frameworks, timelines, compliance essentials, and emotional intelligence skills. On top of training, the most impactful support we recommend is one-on-one coaching with a certified parental leave coach. When managers have confidential access to expert guidance, they feel more secure, parents feel more supportedand both are more likely to stay engaged and avoid burnout.
Given the current political and cultural climate, what trends are you seeing in the future of parental leave policy and practiceand what might organizations need to prepare for?Theres growing recognition that leave is more than a benefitits a driver of long-term organizational health. Thirteen states plus D.C. have passed paid-leave legislation, and momentum is building toward federal standardization, and risin employee expectations are prompting companies to act ahead of mandates. Were also seeing a shift toward intersectional strategies that connect leave to leadership development, career growth, mental health, and caregiver support. Organizations that treat leave as a core talent strategynot just a compliance taskwill be best positioned for the future.
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PECOS, TexasExtreme drought has diminished the flows of the Rio Grande and Pecos River, two of the most iconic waterways in Texas.
The advocacy group American Rivers recently named the Lower Rio Grande one of its most endangered rivers, describing a near-permanent human-induced megadrought threatening all life that depends on it. On the Pecos River, there hasnt been enough water to distribute to irrigation districts below the Red Bluff Reservoir in recent years.
While farmers and cities face increasing water scarcity, oil and gas companies use billions of gallons of water from these rivers annually. An exclusive Inside Climate News analysis found that drillers used more than 31,000 acre feet, or more than 10 billion gallons, of Rio Grande water for drilling and fracking operations in the Eagle Ford Shale between 2021 and 2024.
Thats enough water to meet the needs of 113,500 Texas households for an entire year, based on average daily use of 246 gallons per household. At the Red Bluff Reservoir on the Pecos River, Daniel Arrant of Kingsley Water Company reports to have sold more than 75 million barrels of water, or more than 4 billion gallons, for oil and gas operations since 2016.
Numerous Texas oil and gas companies have made voluntary commitments to reduce their freshwater use and shift to brackish or recycled water for use in fracking for oil and gas. But the water sales, like those reported by Arrant of the Kingsley Water Company, show that oil and gas drilling is still reliant on surface water from Texas rivers.
Surface water sold for drilling and fracking is categorized as mining consumption under Texas law. Pumping water underground to drill or frack a well often permanently removes it from the natural hydrologic cycle, given the presence of chemical fracking fluids and natural toxins like arsenic following its use in the extraction process for oil or gas.
Inside Climate News obtained Rio Grande water data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) through a public information request. Kingsley Water Company, an oil field water services firm based in the Woodlands, a Houston suburb, was the top user of Rio Grande water for oil and gas drilling, followed by SM Energy Company, Segundo Navarro Drilling, and Select Water Solutions.
Between the Rio Grande and the Pecos River, Kingsley has sold enough water for drilling to meet the needs of more than 100,000 Texas households for a year. Kinglsey and Arrant did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
State Representative Vikki Goodwin criticized Apache Corp. for buying water from the Pecos River when, she says, recycled produced water from fracking was available. Inside Climate News independently confirmed the water purchase.
Investments in projects to clean up and recycle frack water will dry up if oil companies dont opt to use the recycled water, Goodwin, a Democrat who represents Travis County, said. My hope is we dont wait until too late to make better decisions about our water resources in Texas.
A spokesperson for Apache, headquartered in Houston, said the company minimizes the use of fresh water and is using non-fresh, non-potable water for fracking its oil and gas wells in Loving County near the reservoir.
Eagle Ford Drillers Tap Rio Grande
Tributaries in Mexico feed the Rio Grande in South Texas. But with Mexico behind on water deliveries to the United States, tensions on the river are high. The Amistad Reservoir, where water delivered by Mexico is stored, hit a historic low in July 2024.
Extreme drought in counties like Webb and Maverick, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, is compounding the problem. Groundwater springs and tributaries are feeding less water into the river. Flows have decreased on the Rio Grande by more than 30% in recent decades.
The Rio Grande is the sole source of drinking water for the city of Laredo in Webb County. Because of the drought, Laredo has asked residents to reduce water use for several consecutive years. Planners are considering costly alternative water sources to prepare for the day, projected to come around 2040, when the Rio Grande wont be enough to supply the city.
Agriculture consumes the lions share of Rio Grande water, followed by municipal use. While groundwater is the primary source for oil and gas drilling, several companies still consume substantial volumes of surface water from the river. Webb County is at the heart of the fracking boom that took off in South Texass Eagle Ford Shale formation in 2010. The Eagle Ford Shale is now consistently one of the top three oil-producing basins in the country.
Inside Climate News found that between 2020 and 2024, Kingsley Water Company used 12,363 acre feet of Rio Grande water, SM Energy used 11,379 acre feet, Segundo Navarro used 3,979 acre feet, and Select Water used 3,776 acre feet. An acre foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land to a depth of one foot, or 325,851 gallons. The companies did not respond to requests for comment.
Rio Grande water rights are overseen by the TCEQ Rio Grande Watermaster. Water rights are adjudicated by the state and then can be bought and sold by private parties. Rights holders are allowed to divert a pre-approved amount of water at a specific location. Most of these rights are held by cities, farmers, and irrigation districts. Oilfield companies hold a small number.
Kingsley Water Company is a subsidiary of Kingsley Constructors, headquartered in the Woodlands. In 2011, Daniel Arrant led the purchase and permitting of the Rio Grande water rights, according to the website of Voyager, the Houston private equity firm where he is a partner. Arrant entered contracts to resell the water to operators completing wells in the Eagle Ford Shale. These deals have sold more than 235 million barrels, or 9.87 billion gallons, of Rio Grande water, according to the Voyager website.
Select Water Solutions, headquartered in Gainesville, Texas, also resells Rio Grande water to drilling companies. The companys 2023 sustainability report states that it places the utmost importance on safe, environmentally responsible management of water.
Select Water Solutions reported selling a larger share of recycled water each year between 2020 and 2023. But the total volume of freshwater sold also increased in 2023 to a four-year high of more than 97 million barrels, or more than 4 billion gallons.
SM Energy, a Denver-based independent exploration and production company, does not have public sustainability targets for minimizing water use and protecting water quality. Neither does San Antonio-based Segundo Navarro Drilling, a subsidiary of Lewis Energy Group.
TCEQ does not collect data on how oil and gas companies use the surface water they purchase. Drilling, well completion, and fracking are all different steps in the lifecycle of a well that require water.
TCEQ spokesperson Ricky Richter said that between 2009 and 2023, annual surface water use for mining, which includes oil and gas operations, averaged 40,000 acre feet statewide, or about 13 billion gallons. TCEQ defines mining use as water for mining processes including hydraulic use, drilling, washing sand and gravel, and oil field repressuring.
Martin Castro, watershed science director at the Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC) in Laredo, analyzed water use in oil and gas operations for a 2021 report. He found drillers used 19 billion gallons of Rio Grande water between 2010 and 2020.
Any reductions of the rivers water supply, when coupled with recurring droughts, will have disastrous consequences for Webb County and South Texas, Castro wrote at the time.
Inside Climate Newss analysis found slightly higher annual rates of water diversions for oil and gas between 2021 to 2024 than rates noted in RGISCs report spanning the preceding decade. Castro was concerned that drillers are still using large volumes of Rio Grande water.
Were not doing any better than four years ago, he said.
Castro previously worked for TCEQ and observed water diversions used for fracking. But he said that, without reporting requirements, the true scale is unknown. Castro would like to see TCEQ collect data on how much surface water goes to drilling as opposed to fracking. He has also called on TCEQ to publish Rio Grande water diversion data, which currently is only available through records requests.
There is no transparency, he said.
RGISC collaborated with American Rivers in its campaign that named the Lower Rio Grande one of the countrys most endangered rivers. Castro said improving resilience on the river will require thinking outside of the box and increasing investment.
The only way were going to improve conditions on the river is if we make serious federal investments, he said.
Water rights downstream of Amistad Reservoir on the Rio Grande operate on a priority system, which ensures cities get their share of water during times of scarcity.
Priority is given to municipal use, and municipal priority is guaranteed through a municipal reserve, said TCEQ spokesperson Laura Lopez. Water for mining use, as with irrigation and recreational use, is allocated to a water right holders account based on available storage in the system.
Pecos River Water Sold from Red Bluff Reservoir
The Pecos River begins in the mountains of New Mexico and flows through West Texas to meet the Rio Grande. An inter-state compact requires New Mexico to send Pecos River water to Texas, where it is impounded at the Red Bluff Reservoir.
Reduced flows on the Pecos have lowered water levels at Red Bluff. On paper, the Red Bluff Power and Irrigation District, which manages the reservoir, holds rights to 292,500 acre feet a year of water. But its been a long time since there was that much water in the reservoir. Red Bluff sat at 65,000 acre feet in early May. Because of the low reservoir levels, Red Bluff is often unable to send water downstream to irrigation districts.
Kingsley secured the mining water right in 2014 for up to 7,500 acre feet of water a year, about 2.44 billion gallons. The Red Bluff district told Inside Climate News that Kinglsey purchased 1,400 acre feet, or more than 450 million gallons, in 2024.
District general manager Robin Prewit said the water sales to oil and gas drillers are a drop in the bucket. She said that even if the district did not sell water to Kingsley, because of evaporation and transportation losses, there would not be enough water to send to the irrigation districts.
Im not having to choose one or the other, she said.
What she said she could really use is more rain in the Pecos River watershed in New Mexico.
Salinity is another challenge. The water at Red Bluff is salty enough to be considered brackish. Farmers in the area grow salt-tolerant plants. But to be potable for human consumption the water would have to be treated. Apache, which purchased water from Kinglsey early this year, reported using 98.2% nonfresh water in 2023. Water from Red Bluff would be considered nonfresh because of the salinity levels.
Ernest Woodward, a rancher outside McCamey, opposes the water sales for oil and gas drilling. It should not be, he said. Its for irrigation.
He gave up farming barley after several years without irrigation water from Red Bluff. You go to all the labor to get the land prepared, and then you dont get the water, he said.
Woodward would like to see water flowing in the river again.
We dont have enough water, he said. Were starving.
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for its newsletter here.
In the mid-1920s, most Americans ate light breakfasts. Edward Bernays, who would eventually be considered the father of public relations, was hired by a company that sold bacon to promote the idea that a hearty meal including bacon and eggs was more scientifically beneficial. Bernays conducted interviews and then carefully framed the results that led to a shift in public opinion. Americas iconic breakfast is now bacon and eggs.
In the 1950s, the Keep America Beautiful campaign was launched by a coalition of corporations whose products were often littered (soda bottles, plastic packages, etc.). Their iconic moment was 1971s commercial with actor Iron Eyes Cody as a Native American shedding a single tear about litter and pollution.
Both of these campaigns were carefully crafted propaganda designed to focus on individual decisions and actions. They relied on imagery, symbolism, and emotion, not raw facts. And they werent designed to explicitly sell bacon or guilt. Public relations storytellers shaped public opinion like artists and nudged enough behavior change that the entire culture was impacted.
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Artful vision and the power to reframe
Propaganda is an idea or allegation crafted not to inform neutrally, but to influence behavior and belief. Art is an object or image shaped with skill and imagination to evoke emotion and meaning. Its useful to learn from people who create art and propaganda. In my workplanning transportation systems with a bias toward human flourishingI often say I create propagandart to save the human race.
prä-p-gan-därt (noun): ideas, allegations, and aesthetic objects produced with the conscious use of skill and creative imagination, spread deliberately to further ones cause or to damage an opposing cause
The people best equipped to influence behavior arent just marketers or policymakerstheyre propagandartists. The photographer who shapes what you notice. The muralist who reclaims public space. The meme creator who distills frustration into a punchline. Each is practicing a form of strategic persuasion. Each is shaping not just what we see, but how we feel about it.
Whether youre pitching a startup, selling a product, or reshaping a city, you’re competing with ads, reels, renderings, memesall designed to influence perception before youve said a word. To win the room, you dont need new tools nearly as much as you need to master an old one: the art of influence.
Consider a fine art photographer and a meme lord. One crafts a single frame with obsessive care; the other floods the internet with viral punchlines. Both are propagandistsstorytellers who deliberately shape how we see and feel. If I want to create walk-friendly, bicycle-friendly places that increase the smile density in my city, Im only going to reach that goal through persuasive storytelling.
Every photograph is a lie. Photography isnt objective. Ansel Adams didnt just capture Yosemite; he framed it to evoke awe. Gordon Parks didnt just document injustice; he gave it emotional gravity. Whats left out of the frame is as important as whats inside it.
Thats the lesson: direct attention with intention. Dont pitch the product. Show the life it makes possible. The relieved parent, the joyful commuter, the profitable small business, etc. Great art doesnt just showit sells a version of reality.
Remix culture and the new public square
For urbanism innovators, shaping imaginations is a vital part of the playbook. Launching a new cargo bike, pitching a housing policy, or designing a bus transfer hub requires persuasion. If you cant shape public imagination, your product, policy, or vision will be dead on arrival, no matter how brilliant the data behind it.
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1979 on display at the Brooklyn Museum, ca. 2007. [Photo: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images]
Artists reframe the past, present, and futuresometimes in an effort to change culture in some way, sometimes just to be irreverent or entertaining. From Shepard Faireys Hope poster to Judy Chicagos The Dinner Party, art can create appetites for ideas the mainstream hasnt developed yet. A speculative rendering of a car-free downtown is an example of a prompt for belief. The High Line in New York began this way: a vision, illustrated and circulated, that turned an abandoned rail line into a civic treasure.
Applying lessons learned from the art world doesnt require training to become a great artist yourself. Memes are fast, cheap, and culturally potent. Theyre the digital ages most accessible form of propagandart and we all know they can sometimes look sloppy and haphazard. A meme doesnt explainit distills. The Distracted Boyfriend image reshaped debates about loyalty. Bernie Sanders in mittens became a viral fundraiser. Memes bypass logic, persuading with speed, irony, and emotional friction.
For builders and changemakers, memes offer a strategy. Want to communicate the absurdity of legacy infrastructure or bloated software? A meme can do in seconds what a slide deck does in 30 minutes. Memes can help energize a movement or reframe a dull category. The trick is to stop thinking of them as fluff and start using them as signals.
Organized persuasion
Weve been taught to fear the word propaganda. But propaganda, at its root, is organized persuasion. And in an environment of infinite messages, intentional persuasion is a competitive edge. Propagandart blends arts emotional pull with strategys clarity. A viral video about your mission is propagandart. A campaign calling out industry greenwashing is propagandart. A cartoon satirizing the way zoning keeps Americans trapped in cars is propagandart.
Decide what belief or point of view youre trying to implant, or what behavior youre trying to shift. Then use facts to create stories that move markets.
From canvas to camera to meme, the artists role has never changed: shape what people seeand how they feel about it. This is true for shipping code, designing buildings, or launching a movement of kids biking to school. Your work and your legacy lives or dies by stories.
With artistic tools in every pocket and publi platforms a click away, were in a golden age of propagandart. If you want your idea to stick, it needs more than a data pointit needs to be seen, felt, and shared.
Just ask the campaigners behind Barcelonas Superblocks. Before reconfiguring traffic patterns or drafting ordinances, they shared speculative renderings of tree-lined streets, kids playing in former intersections, and cafes spilling into quiet roads once dominated by cars. Those images didnt just illustrate the plan. They created public appetite for changeturning skepticism into support.
The power of propagandart is shaping not just what people know, but what they want. Picture a better world. Frame the story. Share it. If you can shape how people feel, you can shape what they demand.
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How do you feel about your work? Do its daily demands leave you burned out and drained of energy?
Do you find yourself reducing how much effort you make to engage in some quiet or “soft” quitting? Or maybe you dream of taking a more decisive step and joining the “great resignation.”
The prevalenceand popularityof these responses suggest that there has been quite a change in many peoples attitudes to the way they earn a living. Some think that this change stems from a post-COVID evaluation of work-life balance. Others say its an individual form of industrial action.
However, these explanations keep the spotlight firmly on workers rather than the work itself. Perhaps the truth lies in a fundamental deterioration in peoples relationship with their work and maybe the work needs to shoulder some of the responsibility.
Our experience of working, and its impact on our lives, is about more than what goes on within the office or school or hospital or factory that pays our wages. Even something as simple (yet important) as the number of hours someone works might be the result of a complex combination of national law, professional expectations, and an organizations resources.
This is where something known as the psychosocial work environment comes inan approach (especially popular in Scandinavia) that examines the various structures, conditions, and experiences that affect an employees psychological and emotional well-being.
Research in this field suggests that there are three conditions vital to the modern work experience: autonomy, boundary management, and “precarity.”
Autonomy is about how much control and influence you have when it comes to doing your job and is key to how most employees feel about their work.
Low levels of autonomy can leave people feeling overwhelmed and powerless. But high levels can also be detrimental, leading to excessive levels of individual responsibility and overwhelming hours.
Ideally, you should have enough autonomy to feel a sense of flexibility and self-determinationbut not so much that you feel you need to always be available and constantly on the clock.
Setting boundaries
Boundary management is the ability to manage the physical and mental boundaries between work and nonwork lives. Achieving a suitable work-life balance has become even more important in a world of hybrid working.
But in jobs with high levels of autonomy and responsibility, boundaries can become blurred and unpredictable. Phones ping with work-related notifications, and leisure becomes work at the swipe of a screen.
All of this can lead to feelings of anxiety and exhaustion. The goal here is to set clear boundaries that bring predictability and clarity around work time and demands. This provides flexibility that is empowering rather than exploitative.
Finally, “precarity” refers to a lack of stability and security in life. It refers specifically to a harmful state of uncertainty that is typically associated with job insecurity (zero-hour contracts, for example).
This uncertainty and insecurity can dominate daily work time (and free time), leading to feelings of stress and anxiety. It can also have a negative impact on personal finances and career plans.
Income and contract security can help here, although people working in insecure jobs often have little power when it comes to persuading their employers to make the necessary changes.
But addressing the deteriorating relationship between employees and their work means confronting certain core conditions. Reflecting on the psychosocial elements of employment can help to identify the gap between expectation and actual experience.
Before experiencing burnout or resorting to quitting (in any of its forms), this approach encourages employees and employers to reflect on two key questions. How does work make you feel? And what are the things that cause those feelings?
Research on psychosocial work environments provides some guidance. It suggests that workers are more likely to thrive when they have autonomy that feels like control rather than abandonment, and flexibility and clarity that allows for a good work-life balance. They also need security that offers certainty in the presentand confidence in the future.
John-Paul Byrne is a lecturer at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
New Jersey Transit urged riders to reach their destinations before the end of the day Thursday or risk being stranded, as last-minute talks continued in a bid to avert a rail strike by train engineers that would affect some 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City.
The labor dispute is stressing out some Manhattan commuters and already disrupting travel to Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Amid the uncertainty over whether the strike would happen, the transit agency canceled train and bus service at the stadium.
The system’s advisory provided riders with details on contingency plans that would take effect if engineers walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. ET Friday. The agency plans to increase bus service, saying it would add very limited capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.
However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengersonly about 20% of current rail customersso it is has urged people who can work from home to do so if there is a strike.
NJ Transitthe nations third largest transit systemoperates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. A walkout would halt all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York Citys Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark Airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.
Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and that an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.
NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the unions data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.
If the walkout happens, it would be the states first transit strike in more than 40 years. It comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.
The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the dispute, but both sides and the board have declined to comment on whether any progress has been made in subsequent talks this week.
Bruce Shipkowski, Associated Press
If brands want to reach the shoppers of the future, theyll need to meet them where they already are: playing video games.
For this youngest generation, the coolest places to hang out arent the local mall or park but inside virtual worlds. While millennials had Sega Mega Drive and Mario Kart, and Gen Z grew up on The Sims and Angry Birds, Gen Alphaborn between 2010 and 2024 and still younger than 17is coming of age in a world even more seamlessly integrated with technology. Gaming is no longer fringe culture; its where they socialize.
Analysts at investment bank UBS recently found that while older generations still spend about two more hours per week on social platforms than on games, Gen Alpha splits their time evenly between the two. Their engagement with digital platforms goes far beyond passive scrolling. For them, gaming is a medium for creativity and self-expression. If Gen Z and millennials were the social generationsraised on MySpace, Facebook, and InstagramGen Alpha is the gaming generation.
Now, brands are stepping further into these virtual spaces. Just today, Roblox announced its opening its Commerce APIs to eligible creators and brands, with Shopify as the first integrated partner. That means Shopify merchants can now sell physical goods directly within their Roblox experiences. It also works the other way. Through Robloxs new Approved Merchandiser Program, users can buy physical items in the real world that unlock digital content in-game.
Among popular gaming platforms, Roblox reaches one of the youngest audiences, with 60% of its users under the age of 16. These digital worlds have replaced group chats and casual hangouts with avatars serving as extensions of personality and style, Liv Burke, associate director of social at social media agency Superdigital, recently wrote in an op-ed for Variety. In these spaces, Gen Alpha is building and personalizing virtual worlds with limited-edition skins and viral emotesand inviting their friends to join.
For a generation that grew up with iPads in hand, their entertainment ecosystems exist largely beyond the reach of traditional advertising. As a result, advertisers investment in gaming is projected to nearly double over the next five years, according to Futurescape. After all, this generation already accounts for an estimated $50 billion in annual spendinga figure expected to reach $5.5 trillion by 2029.
For brands looking to connect with the next wave of consumers, its game on.
Exciting news for anyone who’s already burned through the entirety of Netflix: There’s a new online movie rental platform coming to town.
Letterboxd, the movie-tracking app and the preferred social media of your most insufferable film-loving friend, announced this week that the Letterboxd Video Store is on the way.
The announcement was made Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival. While the company hasnt revealed too many specifics just yet, we do know the upcoming streaming service will be called the Letterboxd Video Store and will feature curated shelves of handpicked titles.
Like other services such as Prime Video, Apple TV, or Google Play, users will be able to rent films on demand or during specified release windows. But dont expect the usual lineup. These selections will be carefully curated by Letterboxd, spotlighting lesser-known films, emerging filmmakers, and titles from the festival circuit.
By showcasing movies that haven’t yet secured wide distribution, Letterboxd aims to position its transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) service as a potential new path to audience connection for filmmakers and sales agents seeking visibility and momentum.
Details around launch dates, availability by territory, and specific titles will be announced in the coming months. However, the company has confirmed that selections will be informed by behavioral insight drawn from its 20 million-strong community of dedicated film lovers.
Launched in 2011, the platform, often dubbed the Goodreads for film, remained a niche hub for cinephiles for nearly a decade. By mid-2020, it had only 1.8 million members. Today, Letterboxd has gone fully mainstream. Top reviewers enjoy micro-celebrity status, its Four Favorites trend routinely goes viral on TikTok, and users gleefully speculate about celebrities burner accounts.
Every day, we see members recommending films to each other, adding to their watch lists and hungry to discover more, Letterboxd CEO Matthew Buchanan said, per The Hollywood Reporter. Letterboxd Video Store is our way of delivering for those film lovers, creating a dedicated space for films that deserve an audience.
