• Ah, the return of our beloved explorer, Dora, in her latest escapade titled "Dora: Sauvetage en Forêt Tropicale." Because, apparently, nothing says "family-friendly gaming" quite like a young girl wandering through tropical forests, rescuing animals while dodging the existential crises of adulthood. Who needs therapy when you have a backpack and a map?

    Let’s take a moment to appreciate the sheer brilliance of this revival. Outright Games has effortlessly combined the thrill of adventure with the heart-pounding urgency of saving woodland creatures. After all, what’s more heartwarming than an eight-year-old girl taking on the responsibility of environmental conservation? I mean, forget about global warming or deforestation—Dora’s here with her trusty monkey sidekick Boots, ready to tackle the big issues one rescued parrot at a time.

    And let’s not overlook the gameplay mechanics! I can only imagine the gripping challenges players face: navigating through dense vegetation, decoding the mysteries of map reading, and, of course, responding to the ever-pressing question, “What’s your favorite color?” Talk about raising the stakes. Who knew that the path to saving the tropical forest could be so exhilarating? It’s like combining Indiana Jones with a kindergarten art class.

    Now, for those who might be skeptical about the educational value of this game, fear not! Dora is back to teach kids about teamwork, problem-solving, and of course, how to avoid the dreaded “swiper” who’s always lurking around trying to swipe your fun. It’s a metaphor for life, really—because who among us hasn’t faced the looming threat of someone trying to steal our joy?

    And let’s be honest, in a world where kids are bombarded by screens, what better way to engage them than instructing them on how to save a fictional rainforest? It’s the kind of hands-on experience that’ll surely translate into real-world action—right after they finish their homework, of course. Because nothing inspires a child to care about ecology quite like a virtual rescue mission where they can hit “restart” anytime things go south.

    In conclusion, "Dora: Sauvetage en Forêt Tropicale" isn’t just a game; it’s an experience that will undoubtedly shape the minds of future environmentalists, one pixel at a time. So gear up, parents! Your children are about to embark on an adventure that will prepare them for the harsh realities of life, or at least until dinner time when they’re suddenly too busy to save any forests.

    #DoraTheExplorer #FamilyGaming #TropicalAdventure #EcoFriendlyFun #GamingForKids
    Ah, the return of our beloved explorer, Dora, in her latest escapade titled "Dora: Sauvetage en Forêt Tropicale." Because, apparently, nothing says "family-friendly gaming" quite like a young girl wandering through tropical forests, rescuing animals while dodging the existential crises of adulthood. Who needs therapy when you have a backpack and a map? Let’s take a moment to appreciate the sheer brilliance of this revival. Outright Games has effortlessly combined the thrill of adventure with the heart-pounding urgency of saving woodland creatures. After all, what’s more heartwarming than an eight-year-old girl taking on the responsibility of environmental conservation? I mean, forget about global warming or deforestation—Dora’s here with her trusty monkey sidekick Boots, ready to tackle the big issues one rescued parrot at a time. And let’s not overlook the gameplay mechanics! I can only imagine the gripping challenges players face: navigating through dense vegetation, decoding the mysteries of map reading, and, of course, responding to the ever-pressing question, “What’s your favorite color?” Talk about raising the stakes. Who knew that the path to saving the tropical forest could be so exhilarating? It’s like combining Indiana Jones with a kindergarten art class. Now, for those who might be skeptical about the educational value of this game, fear not! Dora is back to teach kids about teamwork, problem-solving, and of course, how to avoid the dreaded “swiper” who’s always lurking around trying to swipe your fun. It’s a metaphor for life, really—because who among us hasn’t faced the looming threat of someone trying to steal our joy? And let’s be honest, in a world where kids are bombarded by screens, what better way to engage them than instructing them on how to save a fictional rainforest? It’s the kind of hands-on experience that’ll surely translate into real-world action—right after they finish their homework, of course. Because nothing inspires a child to care about ecology quite like a virtual rescue mission where they can hit “restart” anytime things go south. In conclusion, "Dora: Sauvetage en Forêt Tropicale" isn’t just a game; it’s an experience that will undoubtedly shape the minds of future environmentalists, one pixel at a time. So gear up, parents! Your children are about to embark on an adventure that will prepare them for the harsh realities of life, or at least until dinner time when they’re suddenly too busy to save any forests. #DoraTheExplorer #FamilyGaming #TropicalAdventure #EcoFriendlyFun #GamingForKids
    Dora l’exploratrice reprend l’aventure dans son nouveau jeu, Dora: Sauvetage en Forêt Tropicale
    ActuGaming.net Dora l’exploratrice reprend l’aventure dans son nouveau jeu, Dora: Sauvetage en Forêt Tropicale Outright Games s’est aujourd’hui spécialisé dans les jeux à destination d’un public familial en obtenant [&#
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  • Elon Musk’s SpaceX City Starbase Faces Opposition from Its Texas Neighbors

    May 29, 20255 min readSpaceX’s Starbase Is Officially a City. Some Neighbors Aren’t ThrilledStarbase, SpaceX’s launch site turned company town in South Texas, faces local opposition from residents outside the city limitsBy Paola Rosa-Aquino edited by Lee BillingsSpaceX rockets stand near the end of a neighborhood street in the company’s Starbase launch complex in this photograph from October 2021. Starbase was officially incorporated as a city of Cameron County, Texas in May 2025. Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBefore SpaceX’s Starship lost control and exploded over the Indian Ocean during its ninth test flight, the 400-foot-tall megarocket blasted off from Texas’s newest city.Starbase, situated on 1.5 square miles of the Lone Star State’s southernmost tip in the Rio Grande Valley, is mostly made up of SpaceX employees living on company-owned property and abuts a habitat for endangered wildlife, as well as a public beach.Starbase serves as the main testing and launch location for Starship, SpaceX’s planned fully reusable spacecraft, which is meant to revolutionize human and uncrewed space travel with its gargantuan payload capacity and rapid-fire flight cadence. If Starship’s development proceeds as planned, the megarocket could soon be ferrying crew and cargo alike to multiple otherworldly destinations—such as the lunar surface, for NASA’s Artemis program, and Mars, in fulfillment of SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s long-stated dream. But nearby residents worry about less glamorous local effects, fearing that a town built around the space company could continue SpaceX’s alleged pattern of polluting the area and blocking access to the nearby beach and other open public spaces.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.“SpaceX has already proven itself to be an extremely bad neighbor,” says Christopher Basaldú, an anthropologist and environmentalist and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, who lives in nearby Brownsville, Tex. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Long before it was Starbase, the area’s beaches, tidal flats and wetlands were of great significance to the Indigenous Carrizo/Comecrudo people. Many of them still live nearby as members of the modern-day Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Today the area is largely Latino and among the poorest in the country. Musk’s space company began buying up property there in 2012; ever since company housing and rocket-related infrastructure have steadily sprouted.“We’ve grown quite a bit just in the last couple of years. It’s a couple hundred employeestheir families, living amongst actual rockets,” said Daniel Huot, a SpaceX communications manager, during a company livestream before Tuesday’s Starship test flight.Huot added that the move to incorporate what was formerly Boca Chica Village as Starbase will help the company “scale more quicklytry to build out the best community possible for all the people that are building the future of humanity’s place in space.”Even before SpaceX began launching rockets at the site, neighbors complained about potential environmental woes stemming from the company’s operations. In a 2018 press conference, Musk dismissed such concerns, saying “We’ve got a lot of land with no one around, and so ifblows up, it’s cool.”The first launch of the 40-story-tall Starship vehicle in April 2023 didn’t entirely proceed as planned—it blew up the concrete launch pad and left a literal crater behind. Particulate debris, as well as concrete and steel shrapnel from the botched launch, scattered far and wide across the surrounding landscape, igniting fires and slamming into protected habitats and public beaches. Ash, dust and sand grains hurled aloft by this first Starship flight test rained down as far out as Port Isabel, Tex., about five miles from the launch site.Local environmentalists have also sounded the alarm on how the company’s activities at Starbase could increase chemical and sonic pollution that puts migratory birds and other vulnerable endangered species in the area at greater risk.Despite these brewing tensions, Starbase was incorporated in early May, making it the first new city in Cameron County, Texas, in 30 years.Only people who live in the immediate area—almost all of them SpaceX employees—were eligible to vote for the new city. Residents voted 212 for and six against. The city’s mayor and commissioners—all current or former SpaceX employees—ran unopposed. “Nowstolen away not only a neighborhood but the land around it, which had been basically environmentally untouched areas,” says Basaldú, who is a member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe.Starbase’s boundaries snake along State Highway 4, which provides the only access to both Starbase and the open-to-the-public Boca Chica Beach. A bill pending in the Texas Legislature would shift control over weekday closures of the beach and nearby roadways from the county commissioners to Starbase city leaders now that Starbase is a municipality under law.“As a community, we were there first,” says Suquiery Santillana, a resident of nearby Brownsville, Tex., who has visited Boca Chica Beach since childhood. “I’m almost 50, and now my grandkids are going.” Her family’s trips to the isolated shoreline now include wide-eyed roadside spectators from all across the country who want to catch a glimpse of the SpaceX launch site. While Santillana is happy that SpaceX has brought jobs to the area, she would like the company to communicate more about upcoming closures and launch plans with locals.Members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe also trace their creation story to this once-pristine beach. The intermittent access restrictions imposed by SpaceX’s launches, some tribe members say, limit them from freely participating in traditions such as fishing and tribal ceremonies that have been taking place on their ancestral land for thousands of years.Activity at the site could soon ramp up even more. On May 22 the Federal Aviation Administrationannounced it had granted approval for SpaceX to increase the annual number of Starbase launches from five to 25. Eventually, Starship flights from the site could far exceed that because the vehicle is designed for very fast turnaround times and an unprecedentedly high launch cadence. Starship’s sheer size, coupled with more frequent launches, could balloon Starbase’s overall environmental footprint while also essentially shutting down Highway 4 for much of the year. The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.For now, Starbase is poised to continue its rapid development and expansion, with plans in the works for more housing, offices and rocket launch facilities. Jim Chapman of the local environmental justice nonprofit RGVworries that Starbase’s incorporation could allow SpaceX to skirt important regulatory hurdles. “fewer layers of bureaucracy thatto go through and get approval from,” he says. “But on the other hand, I haven’t really seen the county denyinganything.”As SpaceX vies to fly ever more powerful rockets in pursuit of Musk’s interplanetary aspirations, local residents also fear that the company’s launch activity and its proximity to new natural gas projects could pose grave threats to Rio Grande Valley communities. One such project currently under construction is less than six miles from the launch site—too close for comfort, some critics say, given the possibility of volatile explosions sparked by showers of fiery rocket debris.If Musk’s latest projections are to be trusted, additional Starship test flights will blast off from Starbase every few weeks for the rest of the summer. Time will tell if the company will be mindful of those who live next door.
    #elon #musks #spacex #city #starbase
    Elon Musk’s SpaceX City Starbase Faces Opposition from Its Texas Neighbors
    May 29, 20255 min readSpaceX’s Starbase Is Officially a City. Some Neighbors Aren’t ThrilledStarbase, SpaceX’s launch site turned company town in South Texas, faces local opposition from residents outside the city limitsBy Paola Rosa-Aquino edited by Lee BillingsSpaceX rockets stand near the end of a neighborhood street in the company’s Starbase launch complex in this photograph from October 2021. Starbase was officially incorporated as a city of Cameron County, Texas in May 2025. Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBefore SpaceX’s Starship lost control and exploded over the Indian Ocean during its ninth test flight, the 400-foot-tall megarocket blasted off from Texas’s newest city.Starbase, situated on 1.5 square miles of the Lone Star State’s southernmost tip in the Rio Grande Valley, is mostly made up of SpaceX employees living on company-owned property and abuts a habitat for endangered wildlife, as well as a public beach.Starbase serves as the main testing and launch location for Starship, SpaceX’s planned fully reusable spacecraft, which is meant to revolutionize human and uncrewed space travel with its gargantuan payload capacity and rapid-fire flight cadence. If Starship’s development proceeds as planned, the megarocket could soon be ferrying crew and cargo alike to multiple otherworldly destinations—such as the lunar surface, for NASA’s Artemis program, and Mars, in fulfillment of SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s long-stated dream. But nearby residents worry about less glamorous local effects, fearing that a town built around the space company could continue SpaceX’s alleged pattern of polluting the area and blocking access to the nearby beach and other open public spaces.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.“SpaceX has already proven itself to be an extremely bad neighbor,” says Christopher Basaldú, an anthropologist and environmentalist and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, who lives in nearby Brownsville, Tex. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Long before it was Starbase, the area’s beaches, tidal flats and wetlands were of great significance to the Indigenous Carrizo/Comecrudo people. Many of them still live nearby as members of the modern-day Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Today the area is largely Latino and among the poorest in the country. Musk’s space company began buying up property there in 2012; ever since company housing and rocket-related infrastructure have steadily sprouted.“We’ve grown quite a bit just in the last couple of years. It’s a couple hundred employeestheir families, living amongst actual rockets,” said Daniel Huot, a SpaceX communications manager, during a company livestream before Tuesday’s Starship test flight.Huot added that the move to incorporate what was formerly Boca Chica Village as Starbase will help the company “scale more quicklytry to build out the best community possible for all the people that are building the future of humanity’s place in space.”Even before SpaceX began launching rockets at the site, neighbors complained about potential environmental woes stemming from the company’s operations. In a 2018 press conference, Musk dismissed such concerns, saying “We’ve got a lot of land with no one around, and so ifblows up, it’s cool.”The first launch of the 40-story-tall Starship vehicle in April 2023 didn’t entirely proceed as planned—it blew up the concrete launch pad and left a literal crater behind. Particulate debris, as well as concrete and steel shrapnel from the botched launch, scattered far and wide across the surrounding landscape, igniting fires and slamming into protected habitats and public beaches. Ash, dust and sand grains hurled aloft by this first Starship flight test rained down as far out as Port Isabel, Tex., about five miles from the launch site.Local environmentalists have also sounded the alarm on how the company’s activities at Starbase could increase chemical and sonic pollution that puts migratory birds and other vulnerable endangered species in the area at greater risk.Despite these brewing tensions, Starbase was incorporated in early May, making it the first new city in Cameron County, Texas, in 30 years.Only people who live in the immediate area—almost all of them SpaceX employees—were eligible to vote for the new city. Residents voted 212 for and six against. The city’s mayor and commissioners—all current or former SpaceX employees—ran unopposed. “Nowstolen away not only a neighborhood but the land around it, which had been basically environmentally untouched areas,” says Basaldú, who is a member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe.Starbase’s boundaries snake along State Highway 4, which provides the only access to both Starbase and the open-to-the-public Boca Chica Beach. A bill pending in the Texas Legislature would shift control over weekday closures of the beach and nearby roadways from the county commissioners to Starbase city leaders now that Starbase is a municipality under law.“As a community, we were there first,” says Suquiery Santillana, a resident of nearby Brownsville, Tex., who has visited Boca Chica Beach since childhood. “I’m almost 50, and now my grandkids are going.” Her family’s trips to the isolated shoreline now include wide-eyed roadside spectators from all across the country who want to catch a glimpse of the SpaceX launch site. While Santillana is happy that SpaceX has brought jobs to the area, she would like the company to communicate more about upcoming closures and launch plans with locals.Members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe also trace their creation story to this once-pristine beach. The intermittent access restrictions imposed by SpaceX’s launches, some tribe members say, limit them from freely participating in traditions such as fishing and tribal ceremonies that have been taking place on their ancestral land for thousands of years.Activity at the site could soon ramp up even more. On May 22 the Federal Aviation Administrationannounced it had granted approval for SpaceX to increase the annual number of Starbase launches from five to 25. Eventually, Starship flights from the site could far exceed that because the vehicle is designed for very fast turnaround times and an unprecedentedly high launch cadence. Starship’s sheer size, coupled with more frequent launches, could balloon Starbase’s overall environmental footprint while also essentially shutting down Highway 4 for much of the year. The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.For now, Starbase is poised to continue its rapid development and expansion, with plans in the works for more housing, offices and rocket launch facilities. Jim Chapman of the local environmental justice nonprofit RGVworries that Starbase’s incorporation could allow SpaceX to skirt important regulatory hurdles. “fewer layers of bureaucracy thatto go through and get approval from,” he says. “But on the other hand, I haven’t really seen the county denyinganything.”As SpaceX vies to fly ever more powerful rockets in pursuit of Musk’s interplanetary aspirations, local residents also fear that the company’s launch activity and its proximity to new natural gas projects could pose grave threats to Rio Grande Valley communities. One such project currently under construction is less than six miles from the launch site—too close for comfort, some critics say, given the possibility of volatile explosions sparked by showers of fiery rocket debris.If Musk’s latest projections are to be trusted, additional Starship test flights will blast off from Starbase every few weeks for the rest of the summer. Time will tell if the company will be mindful of those who live next door. #elon #musks #spacex #city #starbase
    WWW.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM
    Elon Musk’s SpaceX City Starbase Faces Opposition from Its Texas Neighbors
    May 29, 20255 min readSpaceX’s Starbase Is Officially a City. Some Neighbors Aren’t ThrilledStarbase, SpaceX’s launch site turned company town in South Texas, faces local opposition from residents outside the city limitsBy Paola Rosa-Aquino edited by Lee BillingsSpaceX rockets stand near the end of a neighborhood street in the company’s Starbase launch complex in this photograph from October 2021. Starbase was officially incorporated as a city of Cameron County, Texas in May 2025. Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBefore SpaceX’s Starship lost control and exploded over the Indian Ocean during its ninth test flight, the 400-foot-tall megarocket blasted off from Texas’s newest city.Starbase, situated on 1.5 square miles of the Lone Star State’s southernmost tip in the Rio Grande Valley, is mostly made up of SpaceX employees living on company-owned property and abuts a habitat for endangered wildlife, as well as a public beach.Starbase serves as the main testing and launch location for Starship, SpaceX’s planned fully reusable spacecraft, which is meant to revolutionize human and uncrewed space travel with its gargantuan payload capacity and rapid-fire flight cadence. If Starship’s development proceeds as planned, the megarocket could soon be ferrying crew and cargo alike to multiple otherworldly destinations—such as the lunar surface, for NASA’s Artemis program, and Mars, in fulfillment of SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s long-stated dream. But nearby residents worry about less glamorous local effects, fearing that a town built around the space company could continue SpaceX’s alleged pattern of polluting the area and blocking access to the nearby beach and other open public spaces.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.“SpaceX has already proven itself to be an extremely bad neighbor,” says Christopher Basaldú, an anthropologist and environmentalist and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, who lives in nearby Brownsville, Tex. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Long before it was Starbase, the area’s beaches, tidal flats and wetlands were of great significance to the Indigenous Carrizo/Comecrudo people (or Esto’k Gna in their own language). Many of them still live nearby as members of the modern-day Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Today the area is largely Latino and among the poorest in the country. Musk’s space company began buying up property there in 2012; ever since company housing and rocket-related infrastructure have steadily sprouted.“We’ve grown quite a bit just in the last couple of years. It’s a couple hundred employees [and] their families, living amongst actual rockets,” said Daniel Huot, a SpaceX communications manager, during a company livestream before Tuesday’s Starship test flight.Huot added that the move to incorporate what was formerly Boca Chica Village as Starbase will help the company “scale more quickly [to] try to build out the best community possible for all the people that are building the future of humanity’s place in space.”Even before SpaceX began launching rockets at the site, neighbors complained about potential environmental woes stemming from the company’s operations. In a 2018 press conference, Musk dismissed such concerns, saying “We’ve got a lot of land with no one around, and so if [a rocket] blows up, it’s cool.”The first launch of the 40-story-tall Starship vehicle in April 2023 didn’t entirely proceed as planned—it blew up the concrete launch pad and left a literal crater behind. Particulate debris, as well as concrete and steel shrapnel from the botched launch, scattered far and wide across the surrounding landscape, igniting fires and slamming into protected habitats and public beaches. Ash, dust and sand grains hurled aloft by this first Starship flight test rained down as far out as Port Isabel, Tex., about five miles from the launch site.Local environmentalists have also sounded the alarm on how the company’s activities at Starbase could increase chemical and sonic pollution that puts migratory birds and other vulnerable endangered species in the area at greater risk.Despite these brewing tensions, Starbase was incorporated in early May, making it the first new city in Cameron County, Texas, in 30 years.Only people who live in the immediate area—almost all of them SpaceX employees—were eligible to vote for the new city. Residents voted 212 for and six against. The city’s mayor and commissioners—all current or former SpaceX employees—ran unopposed. “Now [SpaceX has] stolen away not only a neighborhood but the land around it, which had been basically environmentally untouched areas,” says Basaldú, who is a member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe.Starbase’s boundaries snake along State Highway 4, which provides the only access to both Starbase and the open-to-the-public Boca Chica Beach. A bill pending in the Texas Legislature would shift control over weekday closures of the beach and nearby roadways from the county commissioners to Starbase city leaders now that Starbase is a municipality under law.“As a community, we were there first,” says Suquiery Santillana, a resident of nearby Brownsville, Tex., who has visited Boca Chica Beach since childhood. “I’m almost 50, and now my grandkids are going.” Her family’s trips to the isolated shoreline now include wide-eyed roadside spectators from all across the country who want to catch a glimpse of the SpaceX launch site. While Santillana is happy that SpaceX has brought jobs to the area, she would like the company to communicate more about upcoming closures and launch plans with locals.Members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe also trace their creation story to this once-pristine beach. The intermittent access restrictions imposed by SpaceX’s launches, some tribe members say, limit them from freely participating in traditions such as fishing and tribal ceremonies that have been taking place on their ancestral land for thousands of years.Activity at the site could soon ramp up even more. On May 22 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it had granted approval for SpaceX to increase the annual number of Starbase launches from five to 25. Eventually, Starship flights from the site could far exceed that because the vehicle is designed for very fast turnaround times and an unprecedentedly high launch cadence. Starship’s sheer size, coupled with more frequent launches, could balloon Starbase’s overall environmental footprint while also essentially shutting down Highway 4 for much of the year. The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.For now, Starbase is poised to continue its rapid development and expansion, with plans in the works for more housing, offices and rocket launch facilities. Jim Chapman of the local environmental justice nonprofit Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley) worries that Starbase’s incorporation could allow SpaceX to skirt important regulatory hurdles. “[SpaceX has] fewer layers of bureaucracy that [it has] to go through and get approval from,” he says. “But on the other hand, I haven’t really seen the county denying [it] anything.”As SpaceX vies to fly ever more powerful rockets in pursuit of Musk’s interplanetary aspirations, local residents also fear that the company’s launch activity and its proximity to new natural gas projects could pose grave threats to Rio Grande Valley communities. One such project currently under construction is less than six miles from the launch site—too close for comfort, some critics say, given the possibility of volatile explosions sparked by showers of fiery rocket debris.If Musk’s latest projections are to be trusted (he often overpromises and underdelivers on meeting ambitious rocketry deadlines), additional Starship test flights will blast off from Starbase every few weeks for the rest of the summer. Time will tell if the company will be mindful of those who live next door.
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  • Americans are fueling a massive pope economy

    It was a fun moment to be online. When the news broke on May 8 that Pope Francis’s successor would be the first-ever American to hold the sacred position—and a Chicagoan, no less—social media erupted with celebration and Windy City-specific memes. Within days, some of those memes had morphed into t-shirts for sale.

    As the conversation around Pope Leo XIV quickly spread to his environmentalist leanings and political opinions, though, the wellspring of unauthorized merchandise spread far beyond novelty shirts that read “Da Pope.” What has flourished in the days since is a broader pope economy that spans clothing, memorabilia, food, tourism, and more—both in the U.S. and in Rome. Demand in both places appears largely driven by Americans.

    Stateside fervor for pope merchandise is not without precedent, of course. A pontifical cottage industry sprang up around Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to Philadelphia, for instance. Along with t-shirts commemorating the event, Philly streets were flooded with plush pope dolls, life-sized cardboard cutouts, and other pope swag. There was even pope cheese, a mozzarella ball shaped like the bishop of Rome. Considering this level of entrepreneurial excitement marked the occasion of a sitting pope merely visiting the U.S., it’s no wonder so many people have found creative ways to capitalize on an American ascending to the papacy.

    No business like pope business

    The scope of the pope-based merch empire is already vast. It has a devotional side, with various faith-based online retailers lining up to sell prayer cards, framed portraits, and an insta-book called When the White Smoke Clears: A Guide to Pope Leo XIV’s Early Days, which currently has a June 30 release date. 

    Topps offered a limited-release Pope Leo-themed trading card for four days in May, and reportedly sold 133,535 units at a pop.The Pope Leo cards are now being listed at up to on eBay. For those who would like something a little more three-dimensional, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum recently put on presale two separate iterations of Pope Leo for each. There’s also piping hot content on the way: Castletown Media’s forthcoming documentary, Pope Leo XVI: A Pontiff’s Path, which is expected to reside on an upcoming faith-based streaming service called CREDO. Perhaps some of the many viewers who made 2025 Oscar nominee Conclave a massive hit on streaming during Pope Leo’s election will be among the first to tune in.

    Unsurprisingly, Chicago has become the white-hot epicenter for stateside Popemania. The merch frenzy includes custom White Sox jerseys, in the wake of Pope Leo’s brother dispelling rumors of Cubs fandom and archival video footage confirming his Sox bona fides. The Chicago sports shop Grandstand claimed to Sports Illustrated that their Sox jerseys with the Pope’s name on it are outselling those of any other player on the team. The Sox’s home, Rate Field, took the team’s papal love public, installing a mural of him at the stadium. 

    Beloved Chi-town restaurant chain Portillo’s also named a new sandwich  The Leo, which it describes as “divinely seasoned Italian Beef, baptized in gravy.” Meanwhile, in Evanston, Bennison’s Bakery is offering limited edition cookies that bear Pope Leo’s likeness. 

    Chicago may eventually become an even bigger tourist destination for the faithful. The owner of Pope Leo’s now-decrepit childhood church—St. Mary of the Assumption, on Chicago’s south side—is reportedly in talks to convert the space into a place of worship for local congregations, with a food pantry named after the new pope.A lot of the papal tourism, however, is currently taking place in Rome.

    When in Rome

    Americans already account for the largest segment of tourist visits to Rome, with a record 2.5 million arriving in 2024 alone, according to The Guardian. Now that an American will occupy the Chair of St. Peter in Vatican City, though, vendors and various service providers are preparing for a full-on religious tourist invasion.

    Tour companies are reporting an increase in bookings for pilgrimages, especially from Americans. The owner of Atlante Star, a hotel in Rome known for its impressive view over St Peter’s Basilica, told The Guardian ahead of Pope Leo’s inaugural service on May 18 that the hotel was “mostly full with people from North America, and not just pilgrims.” And as in Chicago, culinary business owners near the Vatican, including gelato makers and brewers, are offering pope-themed confections to entice American visitors.

    Within two days of Pope Leo XIV’s election, posters, magnets and other small items featuring him have gone on sale in Rome pic.twitter.com/LfVJWXiYLE— ReutersMay 10, 2025

    Out on the streets of Rome, some vendors began to sell posters and trinkets bearing the new pope’s name and image within 48 hours of his election. No official Pope Leo XIV holy cards or rosaries have gone on sale yet in the Vatican gift shop, though, nor are any available at many of the other souvenir shops throughout the city, which are reportedly waiting for “the authorization of the dicastery,” a department within the administrative body of the Holy See, to be able to sell merch celebrating the new pope. Waiting seems like a wise move—and not just because it will give all remaining official Pope Francis merch a chance to sell out.

    Divine copyright protection

    The Vatican, it turns out, has a long history of legally protecting the pope’s image. Back in 2009, toward the end of Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure, the Holy See essentially declared a divine copyright. Citing a “great increase of affection and esteem for the person of the Holy Father” as contributing to broader use the Pontiff’s name and image, the Vatican emphasized that “it alone has the right to ensure the respect due to the Successors of Peter,” and therefore, to protect the Pope from unauthorized uses of his name, image, or any related symbols.

    Perhaps inspired by all the papal ephemera Pope Francis and his handlers would have seen during the 2015 trip to the U.S., the Vatican went on the offensive two years later. In 2017, it hired global law firm Baker McKenzie to protect the rights to its intellectual property.It’s unclear how long it will take for the Vatican to authorize official Pope Leo XIV merch. According to Italian news organization Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, it could be as soon as a matter of weeks. In the meantime, the enterprising souls selling trinkets and sandwiches with the pope’s name appear to be taking advantage of a Wild West moment of slow trademark enforcement. In the long haul, those “Da Pope” shirts made in America fall under the parody allowance in the fair use doctrine, but the online merch store with the audacious URL officialpopeleoxiv.com seems destined for litigation.Retailers selling rosaries decorated with Pope Leo’s face, and supposedly blessed by him, may be able to operate unimpeded for the moment. If any folks operating unauthorized shops are religious, though, a much greater punishment than litigation could serve as a deterrent.
    #americans #are #fueling #massive #pope
    Americans are fueling a massive pope economy
    It was a fun moment to be online. When the news broke on May 8 that Pope Francis’s successor would be the first-ever American to hold the sacred position—and a Chicagoan, no less—social media erupted with celebration and Windy City-specific memes. Within days, some of those memes had morphed into t-shirts for sale. As the conversation around Pope Leo XIV quickly spread to his environmentalist leanings and political opinions, though, the wellspring of unauthorized merchandise spread far beyond novelty shirts that read “Da Pope.” What has flourished in the days since is a broader pope economy that spans clothing, memorabilia, food, tourism, and more—both in the U.S. and in Rome. Demand in both places appears largely driven by Americans. Stateside fervor for pope merchandise is not without precedent, of course. A pontifical cottage industry sprang up around Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to Philadelphia, for instance. Along with t-shirts commemorating the event, Philly streets were flooded with plush pope dolls, life-sized cardboard cutouts, and other pope swag. There was even pope cheese, a mozzarella ball shaped like the bishop of Rome. Considering this level of entrepreneurial excitement marked the occasion of a sitting pope merely visiting the U.S., it’s no wonder so many people have found creative ways to capitalize on an American ascending to the papacy. No business like pope business The scope of the pope-based merch empire is already vast. It has a devotional side, with various faith-based online retailers lining up to sell prayer cards, framed portraits, and an insta-book called When the White Smoke Clears: A Guide to Pope Leo XIV’s Early Days, which currently has a June 30 release date.  Topps offered a limited-release Pope Leo-themed trading card for four days in May, and reportedly sold 133,535 units at a pop.The Pope Leo cards are now being listed at up to on eBay. For those who would like something a little more three-dimensional, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum recently put on presale two separate iterations of Pope Leo for each. There’s also piping hot content on the way: Castletown Media’s forthcoming documentary, Pope Leo XVI: A Pontiff’s Path, which is expected to reside on an upcoming faith-based streaming service called CREDO. Perhaps some of the many viewers who made 2025 Oscar nominee Conclave a massive hit on streaming during Pope Leo’s election will be among the first to tune in. Unsurprisingly, Chicago has become the white-hot epicenter for stateside Popemania. The merch frenzy includes custom White Sox jerseys, in the wake of Pope Leo’s brother dispelling rumors of Cubs fandom and archival video footage confirming his Sox bona fides. The Chicago sports shop Grandstand claimed to Sports Illustrated that their Sox jerseys with the Pope’s name on it are outselling those of any other player on the team. The Sox’s home, Rate Field, took the team’s papal love public, installing a mural of him at the stadium.  Beloved Chi-town restaurant chain Portillo’s also named a new sandwich  The Leo, which it describes as “divinely seasoned Italian Beef, baptized in gravy.” Meanwhile, in Evanston, Bennison’s Bakery is offering limited edition cookies that bear Pope Leo’s likeness.  Chicago may eventually become an even bigger tourist destination for the faithful. The owner of Pope Leo’s now-decrepit childhood church—St. Mary of the Assumption, on Chicago’s south side—is reportedly in talks to convert the space into a place of worship for local congregations, with a food pantry named after the new pope.A lot of the papal tourism, however, is currently taking place in Rome. When in Rome Americans already account for the largest segment of tourist visits to Rome, with a record 2.5 million arriving in 2024 alone, according to The Guardian. Now that an American will occupy the Chair of St. Peter in Vatican City, though, vendors and various service providers are preparing for a full-on religious tourist invasion. Tour companies are reporting an increase in bookings for pilgrimages, especially from Americans. The owner of Atlante Star, a hotel in Rome known for its impressive view over St Peter’s Basilica, told The Guardian ahead of Pope Leo’s inaugural service on May 18 that the hotel was “mostly full with people from North America, and not just pilgrims.” And as in Chicago, culinary business owners near the Vatican, including gelato makers and brewers, are offering pope-themed confections to entice American visitors. Within two days of Pope Leo XIV’s election, posters, magnets and other small items featuring him have gone on sale in Rome pic.twitter.com/LfVJWXiYLE— ReutersMay 10, 2025 Out on the streets of Rome, some vendors began to sell posters and trinkets bearing the new pope’s name and image within 48 hours of his election. No official Pope Leo XIV holy cards or rosaries have gone on sale yet in the Vatican gift shop, though, nor are any available at many of the other souvenir shops throughout the city, which are reportedly waiting for “the authorization of the dicastery,” a department within the administrative body of the Holy See, to be able to sell merch celebrating the new pope. Waiting seems like a wise move—and not just because it will give all remaining official Pope Francis merch a chance to sell out. Divine copyright protection The Vatican, it turns out, has a long history of legally protecting the pope’s image. Back in 2009, toward the end of Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure, the Holy See essentially declared a divine copyright. Citing a “great increase of affection and esteem for the person of the Holy Father” as contributing to broader use the Pontiff’s name and image, the Vatican emphasized that “it alone has the right to ensure the respect due to the Successors of Peter,” and therefore, to protect the Pope from unauthorized uses of his name, image, or any related symbols. Perhaps inspired by all the papal ephemera Pope Francis and his handlers would have seen during the 2015 trip to the U.S., the Vatican went on the offensive two years later. In 2017, it hired global law firm Baker McKenzie to protect the rights to its intellectual property.It’s unclear how long it will take for the Vatican to authorize official Pope Leo XIV merch. According to Italian news organization Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, it could be as soon as a matter of weeks. In the meantime, the enterprising souls selling trinkets and sandwiches with the pope’s name appear to be taking advantage of a Wild West moment of slow trademark enforcement. In the long haul, those “Da Pope” shirts made in America fall under the parody allowance in the fair use doctrine, but the online merch store with the audacious URL officialpopeleoxiv.com seems destined for litigation.Retailers selling rosaries decorated with Pope Leo’s face, and supposedly blessed by him, may be able to operate unimpeded for the moment. If any folks operating unauthorized shops are religious, though, a much greater punishment than litigation could serve as a deterrent. #americans #are #fueling #massive #pope
    WWW.FASTCOMPANY.COM
    Americans are fueling a massive pope economy
    It was a fun moment to be online. When the news broke on May 8 that Pope Francis’s successor would be the first-ever American to hold the sacred position—and a Chicagoan, no less—social media erupted with celebration and Windy City-specific memes. Within days, some of those memes had morphed into t-shirts for sale. As the conversation around Pope Leo XIV quickly spread to his environmentalist leanings and political opinions, though, the wellspring of unauthorized merchandise spread far beyond novelty shirts that read “Da Pope.” What has flourished in the days since is a broader pope economy that spans clothing, memorabilia, food, tourism, and more—both in the U.S. and in Rome. Demand in both places appears largely driven by Americans. Stateside fervor for pope merchandise is not without precedent, of course. A pontifical cottage industry sprang up around Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to Philadelphia, for instance. Along with t-shirts commemorating the event, Philly streets were flooded with plush pope dolls, life-sized cardboard cutouts, and other pope swag. There was even pope cheese, a mozzarella ball shaped like the bishop of Rome. Considering this level of entrepreneurial excitement marked the occasion of a sitting pope merely visiting the U.S., it’s no wonder so many people have found creative ways to capitalize on an American ascending to the papacy. No business like pope business The scope of the pope-based merch empire is already vast. It has a devotional side, with various faith-based online retailers lining up to sell prayer cards, framed portraits, and an insta-book called When the White Smoke Clears: A Guide to Pope Leo XIV’s Early Days, which currently has a June 30 release date.  Topps offered a limited-release Pope Leo-themed trading card for four days in May, and reportedly sold 133,535 units at $8.99 a pop. (Though the cards are part of a special Topps collection marking significant moments in sports and culture, Pope trading cards date back to the early 1900s.) The Pope Leo cards are now being listed at up to $199 on eBay. For those who would like something a little more three-dimensional, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum recently put on presale two separate iterations of Pope Leo for $30 each. There’s also piping hot content on the way: Castletown Media’s forthcoming documentary, Pope Leo XVI: A Pontiff’s Path, which is expected to reside on an upcoming faith-based streaming service called CREDO. Perhaps some of the many viewers who made 2025 Oscar nominee Conclave a massive hit on streaming during Pope Leo’s election will be among the first to tune in. Unsurprisingly, Chicago has become the white-hot epicenter for stateside Popemania. The merch frenzy includes custom White Sox jerseys, in the wake of Pope Leo’s brother dispelling rumors of Cubs fandom and archival video footage confirming his Sox bona fides. The Chicago sports shop Grandstand claimed to Sports Illustrated that their Sox jerseys with the Pope’s name on it are outselling those of any other player on the team. The Sox’s home, Rate Field, took the team’s papal love public, installing a mural of him at the stadium.  Beloved Chi-town restaurant chain Portillo’s also named a new sandwich  The Leo, which it describes as “divinely seasoned Italian Beef, baptized in gravy.” Meanwhile, in Evanston, Bennison’s Bakery is offering limited edition cookies that bear Pope Leo’s likeness.  Chicago may eventually become an even bigger tourist destination for the faithful. The owner of Pope Leo’s now-decrepit childhood church—St. Mary of the Assumption, on Chicago’s south side—is reportedly in talks to convert the space into a place of worship for local congregations, with a food pantry named after the new pope. (The Chicago suburb in which he grew up intends to either purchase his childhood home that was up for sale, or obtain it through eminent domain, and allow it “to be viewed and visited by the public as a historic site.”) A lot of the papal tourism, however, is currently taking place in Rome. When in Rome Americans already account for the largest segment of tourist visits to Rome, with a record 2.5 million arriving in 2024 alone, according to The Guardian. Now that an American will occupy the Chair of St. Peter in Vatican City, though, vendors and various service providers are preparing for a full-on religious tourist invasion. Tour companies are reporting an increase in bookings for pilgrimages, especially from Americans. The owner of Atlante Star, a hotel in Rome known for its impressive view over St Peter’s Basilica, told The Guardian ahead of Pope Leo’s inaugural service on May 18 that the hotel was “mostly full with people from North America, and not just pilgrims.” And as in Chicago, culinary business owners near the Vatican, including gelato makers and brewers, are offering pope-themed confections to entice American visitors. Within two days of Pope Leo XIV’s election, posters, magnets and other small items featuring him have gone on sale in Rome pic.twitter.com/LfVJWXiYLE— Reuters (@Reuters) May 10, 2025 Out on the streets of Rome, some vendors began to sell posters and trinkets bearing the new pope’s name and image within 48 hours of his election. No official Pope Leo XIV holy cards or rosaries have gone on sale yet in the Vatican gift shop, though, nor are any available at many of the other souvenir shops throughout the city, which are reportedly waiting for “the authorization of the dicastery,” a department within the administrative body of the Holy See, to be able to sell merch celebrating the new pope. Waiting seems like a wise move—and not just because it will give all remaining official Pope Francis merch a chance to sell out. Divine copyright protection The Vatican, it turns out, has a long history of legally protecting the pope’s image. Back in 2009, toward the end of Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure, the Holy See essentially declared a divine copyright. Citing a “great increase of affection and esteem for the person of the Holy Father” as contributing to broader use the Pontiff’s name and image, the Vatican emphasized that “it alone has the right to ensure the respect due to the Successors of Peter,” and therefore, to protect the Pope from unauthorized uses of his name, image, or any related symbols. Perhaps inspired by all the papal ephemera Pope Francis and his handlers would have seen during the 2015 trip to the U.S., the Vatican went on the offensive two years later. In 2017, it hired global law firm Baker McKenzie to protect the rights to its intellectual property. (Representatives for Baker McKenzie did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment on the work it may have done, or continues to do, for the Catholic Church.) It’s unclear how long it will take for the Vatican to authorize official Pope Leo XIV merch. According to Italian news organization Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, it could be as soon as a matter of weeks. In the meantime, the enterprising souls selling trinkets and sandwiches with the pope’s name appear to be taking advantage of a Wild West moment of slow trademark enforcement. In the long haul, those “Da Pope” shirts made in America fall under the parody allowance in the fair use doctrine, but the online merch store with the audacious URL officialpopeleoxiv.com seems destined for litigation. (The operator of the site did not respond to a request for comment, but WHOIS Domain Lookup shows that it went live on May 9 and operates out of Reykjavik.) Retailers selling rosaries decorated with Pope Leo’s face, and supposedly blessed by him, may be able to operate unimpeded for the moment. If any folks operating unauthorized shops are religious, though, a much greater punishment than litigation could serve as a deterrent.
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  • These photos are literally saving jaguars

    Haga clic aquí para leer esta historia en español.SONORA, Mexico — This landscape didn’t seem like a place to find jaguars, the world’s most famous jungle cat. The ground was parched and rocky and mostly brown, other than the occasional cactus or palm tree. It was so hot and dry that even some of the prickly nopales were wilting.Yet there it was — in the playback screen of a motion-sensing camera, strapped to an oak tree near a dry stream bed. Less than a week earlier, a large jaguar had walked exactly where I was now standing. Even from the small camera display, the cat looked imposing, with its oversized paws and a wide, skull-crushing jaw. The Northern Jaguar Reserve is nestled in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. During our visit in April, the dry season, there was little green vegetation other than desert plants like organ pipe cactuses and agave. Ash Ponders for VoxIt was a blistering afternoon in April, and I was in the Northern Jaguar Reserve, a protected area in Sonora about 125 miles south of the US border in Arizona. The reserve and the region around it are home to the world’s northernmost population of jaguars, the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere, as well as three other species of wild felines: ocelots, bobcats, and mountain lions, or pumas.The cat on the screen was named El Guapo. He’s the largest of five or six resident jaguars in the reserve and has likely fathered a handful of kittens, Miguel Gómez Ramírez, the reserve manager, told me.El Guapo has a bold personality: While some of the park’s jaguars get spooked by the flash or sound of motion cameras scattered through the reserve, jumping in the air like surprised house cats, El Guapo doesn’t seem to care. It’s as if he knows he’s at the top of the food chain. 1/4El Guapo. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectWhile jaguars are often associated with the tropics, they once ranged as far north as Southern California, the Grand Canyon, and possibly even Louisiana. The US had jaguars! Then they were gone. By the mid-1900s, ranchers and hunters had exterminated these felines, largely because they were seen — like many other wild predators — as a threat to cattle. Jaguars do occasionally kill cows, though few cases of livestock predation in the US have actually been verified. Over the last few decades, several male jaguars have been spotted in their historic territory in the American Southwest — most recently, in December 2023. The extraordinary sightings give environmental advocates hope that jaguars could one day return to the US, fixing a broken food chain and recovering an important missing piece of Indigenous culture in the southern borderlands.A jaguar pelt is on display at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo in the state capital of Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxThose cats all came from northern Mexico. They came from the region where I was now standing, slipping through some of the last remaining gaps in the border wall. That means any chance that jaguars now have of returning to the US depends on maintaining openings in the wall — and on an ample reserve of cats in northern Mexico. Jaguars can only reestablish in their northern range if they’re sufficiently abundant in Mexico, where they’re endangered. And like in the US, ranchers in Sonora have a long history of killing felines for their perceived, and occasionally real, threat to cattle. While the Northern Jaguar Reserve helps protect wild cats in Sonora, what had ultimately brought me to Mexico was a project to conserve jaguars that extends far beyond the park’s boundary. For many years, a small group of scientists and advocates have been working to cast Sonora’s jaguars in a different light — to turn them from beef-hungry villains to important features of the ecosystem that can bring ranchers financial reward. Those efforts appear to be paying off: The population of jaguars in the reserve and the ranching region around it is stable, if not growing, offering hope that people can live harmoniously with the predators they once loathed.The Northern Jaguar Reserve is, without exaggerating, in the middle of nowhere.I traveled there last month with Roberto Wolf, a veterinarian who leads the Northern Jaguar Project, an American nonprofit that oversees the refuge. After crossing the border south of Tucson, we drove another four hours or so to a charming ranch town called Sahuaripa, where the narrow streets were lined with brightly colored homes and full of stray dogs.Homes in the town of Sahuaripa are brightly painted and often have crosses mounted on their front doors. Ash Ponders for VoxA man named Don Francisco sells warm tortillas at dawn in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxA one-armed statue of Jesus overlooks the town of Sahuaripa. The other arm, I was told, fell off in a lightning storm. Ash Ponders for VoxFrom there it was another few hours on to the reserve, largely on rugged dirt roads.Some time after entering the reserve we stopped by a log on the side of the road. It was covered in scratch marks, like the arm of a couch in a home filled with cats. That was the work of a mountain lion marking its territory, said Gómez, who met us in the park. He pointed out a motion camera nearby that had previously captured the behavior. Right before arriving at our campsite, a skunk ran across the front of the car, did a handstand, and then disappeared into the scrub. The next morning, which was cloudless and crisp, we hiked to a place called La Hielería — the spot where the trail cam had recently spotted El Guapo. Large winged shadows crossed our paths, cast by vultures hunting for carcasses. On the drive from Arizona to Sahuaripa, we crossed the Yaqui River, just west of the Northern Jaguar Reserve. It cuts through the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Ash Ponders for VoxDozens of motion-detecting trail cameras are scattered throughout the reserve. Here, the display shows a mountain lion that walked by several days earlier. Ash Ponders for VoxLa Hielería, once part of a cattle ranch, has an important place in cat conservation. In the late 1990s, when jaguars were reappearing in the US, a team of researchers began exploring northern Mexico to find out where they were coming from. As part of that work, a biologist named Gustavo Pablo Lorenzana Piña set up a motion camera by a stream bed in La Hielería. The camera captured, as expected, cow after cow after cow. But then, as Lorenzana kept clicking through, he saw it: a jaguar, “the undisputed ruler of the neotropical forests, captured in a beautiful shot with shrubs and cacti in the background,” he said. The image, taken in early 2000, was the first ever photo of a live jaguar in Sonora. It was a female, later named Gus, in honor of Gustavo.The first ever photo taken of a live jaguar in Sonora. GP Lorenzana/CA López-GonzálezHer story ended — as most other jaguar tales do — at the hands of humans. The animal was pursued and killed for allegedly harming cattle, Lorenzana told me. Although it’s technically illegal to kill jaguars in Mexico, hunting them for real or perceived harm to livestock was once a common practice. And it’s still a threat today. In the late 20th century, at least five animals were killed on average per year in the state, according to the book Borderland Jaguars by David Brown and NJP co-founder Carlos López González.One man I met, in his 70s, told me he’d killed six jaguars on a ranch that is now part of the reserve.Ranch owners would pay around 5,000 Mexican pesos — worth around in today’s US dollars, and nearly double that in the early 2000s — per slain jaguar. Heraclio “Laco” Duarte Robles killed several jaguars when he worked for a ranch in what is now the reserve. Now Laco is employed by the Northern Jaguar Project, where he helps keep the cats alive. Ash Ponders for VoxJaguars do occasionally kill calves, though they prefer to feed on wild prey, such as deer or javelina, a small, fierce peccary that looks like a pig. In Sonora, jaguars and pumas might each kill a few calves per year, which typically amounts to only a fraction of a rancher’s production.While Gus was on the losing side of encounters between ranchers and cats, she left a lasting conservation legacy. By showing up on a trail cam in La Hielería, she helped prove that Sonora was home to a breeding population of jaguars. That spurred an effort to buy up ranches — including the one comprising La Hielería — and turn them into a reserve. NJP purchased its first ranch in 2003, and has since added several more. Together they cover more than 56,000 acres. Today the Northern Jaguar Reserve has a small yet healthy population of five or six jaguars, according to Carmina Gutiérrez González, a biologist at NJP. Motion cameras have spotted another 10 or so jaguars passing through the region, said Gutiérrez, who identifies individuals by their unique patterns of spots. Our only in-person encounter with a jaguar was at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo within a half-day’s drive from the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxAfter seeing El Guapo on the camera in La Hielería I wandered down the dry stream bed, where I stumbled upon a pile of feces. Jaguar feces, Gómez suspected. I’ve never been so excited to find a pile of shit in my life. People like Gómez who have spent more than a decade in the reserve have never seen jaguars face to face. My chance was close to zero. So poop? I’ll take it.The reserve is essential though insufficient — it’s relatively small, covering less than 3 percent of the area of Yellowstone, for example. Jaguars in Sonora, meanwhile, have incredibly large home ranges, and can travel as much as 10 miles a day, Gómez said. Protecting them in one small area isn’t enough in a region where hunting still occurs. So the Northern Jaguar Project had came up with another solution.One morning, after a few nights in the reserve, we drove to a cattle ranch just beyond the boundary. We parked our dusty 4Runner next to a handful of cows and their calves, who froze and stared at us as if they had never seen humans before. Uriel Villarreal Peña on his ranch, Saucito, near the Northern Jaguar Reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxA rancher named Uriel Villarreal Peña, who owns the property, came out to greet us, trailed by two dogs. As we sat around his outdoor table, under the shade of a tin roof, he told us he owns a little more than 100 cattle — each worth several hundred dollars — that he sells in Sahuaripa to be exported to the US.For more than a decade, Villarreal, who wore a ball cap, jeans, and a button-down shirt, has been part of a program called Viviendo con Felinos. The program, launched by NJP in 2007, works with ranchers to place motion cameras on their land. When those cameras detect a wild cat — a jaguar, puma, ocelot, or bobcat — the nonprofit pays the rancher from a pool of funds they’ve raised from donors. The idea, Wolf told me, is “to make living wild animals more valuable than dead ones.”Photos of jaguars are worth 5,000 pesos each, which is similar to what hunters might make for killing them. Photos of ocelots earn 1,500 pesos, pumas 1,000 pesos, and bobcats 5,000 pesos. Each rancher can earn a max of 20,000 pesosa month for their photos — more than double the minimum monthly wage in Mexico. By joining Viviendo con Felinos, ranchers also agree not to kill any wild animals on their ranch, including deer and javelina. Roberto Wolf rests for a moment on our hike in La Hielería. Ash Ponders for VoxVillarreal told me he joined the NJP program partly for the money. Cat photos taken on his ranch earn him a few thousand dollars each year, he said, which amounts to about 10 to 15 percent of his annual income from the ranch. But he also just likes jaguars. “I’m interested in seeing animals, in preserving animals because they look pretty,” he said. It helps that jaguars haven’t caused him many problems. When he was young, Villarreal thought wild cats were bad because they ate cattle, a rancher’s livelihood. But over time he learned that predators will avoid calves as long as they have plenty of deer and javelina to eat. After sampling a bit of Villarreal’s homemade Bacanora — an agave-based liquor, similar to mezcal; my job is hard, I swear! — he took us to see one of his motion cameras. It was “nearby,” though getting there involved a short drive, a half-hour hike in the sun, and a run-in with a road runner, a manic-looking ground bird that always seems to be in a rush.Wolf and NJP field technician Heraclio “Laqui” Duarte López show us a map at an overlook on our way to the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxHiking in the reserve takes you across volcanic rocks and scrubland, often in the blistering heat. Ash Ponders for VoxA cattle skull on the outskirts of Peña’s ranch. Ash Ponders for VoxA vermilion flycatcher takes wing across the bank of the Aros River in the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxStrapped to a wooden post, the camera was plastic, colored in camo, and roughly the size of a brick. We opened it up and clicked through the recent photos. Me approaching. Rabbit. Deer. Fox. A raccoon-like creature called a ringtail. Coati. Ocelot. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina.And more javelina. I asked Villarreal what he thinks when he sees a wild cat on the camera. “1,500!” he joked, referring to the money in Mexican pesos he earns from each picture of an ocelot. He then added, more seriously: “It feels good to be able to say that they do exist.”To date, 21 ranchers near the reserve have joined Viviendo con Felinos. And together, their land comprises 126,000 acres — an area more than twice the size of the actual reserve. The program has in effect expanded the area across which jaguars and their prey are protected. What’s more, it’s so popular among ranchers that there’s actually an informal waitlist to join, Wolf said. NJP has been slowly growing the program, but adding more ranches — and all of the photos they may take — is expensive, Wolf noted. Between fall 2023 and fall 2024, NJP spent well over on photo awards alone. That doesn’t include staff time or the cost of cameras, which run around each. And those cameras often need to be replaced because, of all things, woodpeckers occasionally hammer out the lenses and sensors, Gómez told me.Viviendo con Felinos has given jaguars in Sonora more space to roam, and that alone is huge. But these iconic animals are also benefiting from a more fundamental shift in the region — a shift in its culture and customs. After our visit with Villarreal, we stopped at his neighbor’s property, a large ranch owned by Agustín Hurtado Aguayo. Hurtado, now in his 80s, is the former president of the state’s livestock association and a sizable figure in Sonora’s ranching community. Several years ago, “I hated felines,” he told me at his home in the city of Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, a few hours west of Sahuaripa. Cowboy hats and a pair of bull horns hung from the wall. “I had a very bad image of them,” Hurtado said. Agustín Hurtado Aguayo at his home in Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxRanch-life photos and a longhorn bull mount line the wall of Hurtado’s home. Ash Ponders for VoxHunting wild cats was a practice that older generations passed on, he said, and it stemmed from the belief that cats hurt production. “That’s the training we had,” he told me. It was also normal for cowboys to hunt and eat deer, he said, which diminished an important food source for predators.After Villarreal joined Viviendo con Felinos, Hurtado grew curious about the program. He liked the cat photos from his neighbor’s ranch. “When I began to see photos from the cameras, I began to appreciate the animals,” he said, showing me his iPhone wallpaper of a mountain lion. “Little by little, my vision of wild cats began to change.”Hurtado, who later also joined the program, realized that by limiting the number of cattle on his ranch, his cows would be healthier and there’d be more grass left over for deer. If he had more deer — and his workers refrained from hunting them — wild cats would kill fewer of his animals. These ideas are becoming increasingly common among ranchers in Sonora who have joined the program.“If we as ranchers or as owners of property preserve the normal food chain, we have no problem,” said Jose de la Cruz Coronado Aguayo, another rancher in Viviendo con Felinos. There are other ways, too, to protect cattle from predators, such as by making sure calves don’t roam the mountains alone. In other regions of the world, installing predator deterrents, such as electric fences, alarms, and flashing lights, is also effective in preventing predation. “Cats can really coexist with livestock,” Hurtado told me.The reserve is surrounded by cattle ranches that mostly sell calves for meat. Ash Ponders for VoxWhile it’s clear how photos of jaguars might make someone fall in love with wild cats, that doesn’t explain how ranchers like Hurtado learned how to farm in such a way that protects both felines and cattle. Wolf, of NJP, says it often comes down to individual experiences. Ranchers learn over time that by leaving deer alone or creating new water sources for animals, fewer livestock go missing. What’s also crucial, he said, is that by earning money for photos of cats, people in the program become more tolerant of their presence — and more open to compromise and finding ways to live with them. Before we left his home, Hurtado took out his laptop and showed us photos from the motion cameras on his ranch. They were spectacular: a mountain lion, close to the camera and wearing a look of surprise. An ocelot with what looks like a mouse in its mouth. And several jaguars, including the image below, taken in 2023 — which he had set as his desktop background. 1/3Photos from motion cameras on Hurtado’s ranch. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectNot everyone in Sonora suddenly loves cats. Ranchers still blame jaguars when their calves disappear or turn up dead. And some jaguars are still killed discreetly. One rancher who’s not part of Viviendo con Felinos told me that since November he’s lost more than a dozen of his calves, and he suspects that wild cats are behind the damage. He says the reserve should be fenced in for the benefit of ranchers.Tension in the region boiled over earlier this year, when a mountain lion apparently entered the house where a ranch worker was staying and attacked his dog. The worker, a man named Ricardo Vazquez Paredes, says he hit the cat with a pipe and the lion ran away, but not before injuring his dog, Blaki. While Wolf and some of the other ranchers I spoke to suspect his account might be exaggerated — it’s rare for mountain lions to go near human dwellings — the story raised concerns around Sahuaripa about jaguars and efforts to protect them. Climate change might also worsen conflict in the region. Ranchers I spoke to say Sonora is getting drier, meaning there will be less and less grass for cattle — and for animals like deer that wild cats eat. That could make cows weaker and more likely to starve and jaguars hungrier and more likely to attack. Research suggests that jaguars kill more calves when it’s dry. In 2023, a rancher in Viviendo con Felinos named Diego Ezrre Romero lost a calf to a jaguar. “The most critical thing on my ranch is water,” Ezrre told me. “There are few deer because of the conditions.”Diego Ezrre Romero, a rancher in the Viviendo con Felinos program, in the verdant courtyard of his home in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxThis is to say: Conflict in Sonora isn’t about to disappear altogether. Yet Viviendo con Felinos appears to be helping. Along with NJP’s other efforts to engage the community — education programs, for example, and painting murals that depict the iconic cats in Sahuaripa and other towns — the group is making ranchers in jaguar territory more tolerant to cats. And thanks to payments, more tolerant to losses that they may cause. “Without themthere wouldn’t even be a jaguar here right now,” said Fausto Lorenzo, a rancher near Sahuaripa who’s not affiliated with the reserve. “All the ranchers would have killed them because that was the custom.”From Hurtado’s home in Hermosillo, we drove back toward Arizona. The highway cut through fields of saguaro cactuses. Dust devils spun in the distance, moving like flying whirlpools across the scrubland.The sun sets behind the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains near the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxThe success that NJP has had in Mexico ultimately bodes well for efforts to restore jaguars to the US. The number of jaguars in the reserve is stable, Gutiérrez says, but motion cameras suggest that year-over-year more individuals are passing through the region. That’s more individuals that could potentially spill into the US.One big problem, however, remains. As we neared the US border, the wall came into focus. It was metal and brown and rose 18 feet above the desert. Now stretching hundreds of miles across the Southwest, the wall has made the border largely impassive to wildlife — including jaguars. And it’s still expanding. The Trump administration is now planning to complete one of the last unwalled sections of the border, a 25-mile stretch in the San Rafael Valley, about 150 miles northwest of the refuge, where jaguars have crossed into the US. The future for Sonora’s jaguars appears promising regardless of whether Trump finishes his wall. NJP and other organizations have given these animals more space to live and helped lessen the threats they face. The real loss will be felt in the US. And not just among environmentalists and other wildcat advocates. Jaguars have lived in the US long before any of us. They’re part of the country’s nature heritage — of the ecosystems that are truly American — and their absence leaves our landscapes impaired. Ranchers in Sonora teach us that we can live alongside the continent’s great predators. We just have to choose to. Update, May 20, 11:25 am ET: This piece was originally published on May 20 and updated to include both peso and dollar amounts where applicable.See More:
    #these #photos #are #literally #saving
    These photos are literally saving jaguars
    Haga clic aquí para leer esta historia en español.SONORA, Mexico — This landscape didn’t seem like a place to find jaguars, the world’s most famous jungle cat. The ground was parched and rocky and mostly brown, other than the occasional cactus or palm tree. It was so hot and dry that even some of the prickly nopales were wilting.Yet there it was — in the playback screen of a motion-sensing camera, strapped to an oak tree near a dry stream bed. Less than a week earlier, a large jaguar had walked exactly where I was now standing. Even from the small camera display, the cat looked imposing, with its oversized paws and a wide, skull-crushing jaw. The Northern Jaguar Reserve is nestled in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. During our visit in April, the dry season, there was little green vegetation other than desert plants like organ pipe cactuses and agave. Ash Ponders for VoxIt was a blistering afternoon in April, and I was in the Northern Jaguar Reserve, a protected area in Sonora about 125 miles south of the US border in Arizona. The reserve and the region around it are home to the world’s northernmost population of jaguars, the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere, as well as three other species of wild felines: ocelots, bobcats, and mountain lions, or pumas.The cat on the screen was named El Guapo. He’s the largest of five or six resident jaguars in the reserve and has likely fathered a handful of kittens, Miguel Gómez Ramírez, the reserve manager, told me.El Guapo has a bold personality: While some of the park’s jaguars get spooked by the flash or sound of motion cameras scattered through the reserve, jumping in the air like surprised house cats, El Guapo doesn’t seem to care. It’s as if he knows he’s at the top of the food chain. 1/4El Guapo. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectWhile jaguars are often associated with the tropics, they once ranged as far north as Southern California, the Grand Canyon, and possibly even Louisiana. The US had jaguars! Then they were gone. By the mid-1900s, ranchers and hunters had exterminated these felines, largely because they were seen — like many other wild predators — as a threat to cattle. Jaguars do occasionally kill cows, though few cases of livestock predation in the US have actually been verified. Over the last few decades, several male jaguars have been spotted in their historic territory in the American Southwest — most recently, in December 2023. The extraordinary sightings give environmental advocates hope that jaguars could one day return to the US, fixing a broken food chain and recovering an important missing piece of Indigenous culture in the southern borderlands.A jaguar pelt is on display at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo in the state capital of Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxThose cats all came from northern Mexico. They came from the region where I was now standing, slipping through some of the last remaining gaps in the border wall. That means any chance that jaguars now have of returning to the US depends on maintaining openings in the wall — and on an ample reserve of cats in northern Mexico. Jaguars can only reestablish in their northern range if they’re sufficiently abundant in Mexico, where they’re endangered. And like in the US, ranchers in Sonora have a long history of killing felines for their perceived, and occasionally real, threat to cattle. While the Northern Jaguar Reserve helps protect wild cats in Sonora, what had ultimately brought me to Mexico was a project to conserve jaguars that extends far beyond the park’s boundary. For many years, a small group of scientists and advocates have been working to cast Sonora’s jaguars in a different light — to turn them from beef-hungry villains to important features of the ecosystem that can bring ranchers financial reward. Those efforts appear to be paying off: The population of jaguars in the reserve and the ranching region around it is stable, if not growing, offering hope that people can live harmoniously with the predators they once loathed.The Northern Jaguar Reserve is, without exaggerating, in the middle of nowhere.I traveled there last month with Roberto Wolf, a veterinarian who leads the Northern Jaguar Project, an American nonprofit that oversees the refuge. After crossing the border south of Tucson, we drove another four hours or so to a charming ranch town called Sahuaripa, where the narrow streets were lined with brightly colored homes and full of stray dogs.Homes in the town of Sahuaripa are brightly painted and often have crosses mounted on their front doors. Ash Ponders for VoxA man named Don Francisco sells warm tortillas at dawn in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxA one-armed statue of Jesus overlooks the town of Sahuaripa. The other arm, I was told, fell off in a lightning storm. Ash Ponders for VoxFrom there it was another few hours on to the reserve, largely on rugged dirt roads.Some time after entering the reserve we stopped by a log on the side of the road. It was covered in scratch marks, like the arm of a couch in a home filled with cats. That was the work of a mountain lion marking its territory, said Gómez, who met us in the park. He pointed out a motion camera nearby that had previously captured the behavior. Right before arriving at our campsite, a skunk ran across the front of the car, did a handstand, and then disappeared into the scrub. The next morning, which was cloudless and crisp, we hiked to a place called La Hielería — the spot where the trail cam had recently spotted El Guapo. Large winged shadows crossed our paths, cast by vultures hunting for carcasses. On the drive from Arizona to Sahuaripa, we crossed the Yaqui River, just west of the Northern Jaguar Reserve. It cuts through the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Ash Ponders for VoxDozens of motion-detecting trail cameras are scattered throughout the reserve. Here, the display shows a mountain lion that walked by several days earlier. Ash Ponders for VoxLa Hielería, once part of a cattle ranch, has an important place in cat conservation. In the late 1990s, when jaguars were reappearing in the US, a team of researchers began exploring northern Mexico to find out where they were coming from. As part of that work, a biologist named Gustavo Pablo Lorenzana Piña set up a motion camera by a stream bed in La Hielería. The camera captured, as expected, cow after cow after cow. But then, as Lorenzana kept clicking through, he saw it: a jaguar, “the undisputed ruler of the neotropical forests, captured in a beautiful shot with shrubs and cacti in the background,” he said. The image, taken in early 2000, was the first ever photo of a live jaguar in Sonora. It was a female, later named Gus, in honor of Gustavo.The first ever photo taken of a live jaguar in Sonora. GP Lorenzana/CA López-GonzálezHer story ended — as most other jaguar tales do — at the hands of humans. The animal was pursued and killed for allegedly harming cattle, Lorenzana told me. Although it’s technically illegal to kill jaguars in Mexico, hunting them for real or perceived harm to livestock was once a common practice. And it’s still a threat today. In the late 20th century, at least five animals were killed on average per year in the state, according to the book Borderland Jaguars by David Brown and NJP co-founder Carlos López González.One man I met, in his 70s, told me he’d killed six jaguars on a ranch that is now part of the reserve.Ranch owners would pay around 5,000 Mexican pesos — worth around in today’s US dollars, and nearly double that in the early 2000s — per slain jaguar. Heraclio “Laco” Duarte Robles killed several jaguars when he worked for a ranch in what is now the reserve. Now Laco is employed by the Northern Jaguar Project, where he helps keep the cats alive. Ash Ponders for VoxJaguars do occasionally kill calves, though they prefer to feed on wild prey, such as deer or javelina, a small, fierce peccary that looks like a pig. In Sonora, jaguars and pumas might each kill a few calves per year, which typically amounts to only a fraction of a rancher’s production.While Gus was on the losing side of encounters between ranchers and cats, she left a lasting conservation legacy. By showing up on a trail cam in La Hielería, she helped prove that Sonora was home to a breeding population of jaguars. That spurred an effort to buy up ranches — including the one comprising La Hielería — and turn them into a reserve. NJP purchased its first ranch in 2003, and has since added several more. Together they cover more than 56,000 acres. Today the Northern Jaguar Reserve has a small yet healthy population of five or six jaguars, according to Carmina Gutiérrez González, a biologist at NJP. Motion cameras have spotted another 10 or so jaguars passing through the region, said Gutiérrez, who identifies individuals by their unique patterns of spots. Our only in-person encounter with a jaguar was at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo within a half-day’s drive from the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxAfter seeing El Guapo on the camera in La Hielería I wandered down the dry stream bed, where I stumbled upon a pile of feces. Jaguar feces, Gómez suspected. I’ve never been so excited to find a pile of shit in my life. People like Gómez who have spent more than a decade in the reserve have never seen jaguars face to face. My chance was close to zero. So poop? I’ll take it.The reserve is essential though insufficient — it’s relatively small, covering less than 3 percent of the area of Yellowstone, for example. Jaguars in Sonora, meanwhile, have incredibly large home ranges, and can travel as much as 10 miles a day, Gómez said. Protecting them in one small area isn’t enough in a region where hunting still occurs. So the Northern Jaguar Project had came up with another solution.One morning, after a few nights in the reserve, we drove to a cattle ranch just beyond the boundary. We parked our dusty 4Runner next to a handful of cows and their calves, who froze and stared at us as if they had never seen humans before. Uriel Villarreal Peña on his ranch, Saucito, near the Northern Jaguar Reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxA rancher named Uriel Villarreal Peña, who owns the property, came out to greet us, trailed by two dogs. As we sat around his outdoor table, under the shade of a tin roof, he told us he owns a little more than 100 cattle — each worth several hundred dollars — that he sells in Sahuaripa to be exported to the US.For more than a decade, Villarreal, who wore a ball cap, jeans, and a button-down shirt, has been part of a program called Viviendo con Felinos. The program, launched by NJP in 2007, works with ranchers to place motion cameras on their land. When those cameras detect a wild cat — a jaguar, puma, ocelot, or bobcat — the nonprofit pays the rancher from a pool of funds they’ve raised from donors. The idea, Wolf told me, is “to make living wild animals more valuable than dead ones.”Photos of jaguars are worth 5,000 pesos each, which is similar to what hunters might make for killing them. Photos of ocelots earn 1,500 pesos, pumas 1,000 pesos, and bobcats 5,000 pesos. Each rancher can earn a max of 20,000 pesosa month for their photos — more than double the minimum monthly wage in Mexico. By joining Viviendo con Felinos, ranchers also agree not to kill any wild animals on their ranch, including deer and javelina. Roberto Wolf rests for a moment on our hike in La Hielería. Ash Ponders for VoxVillarreal told me he joined the NJP program partly for the money. Cat photos taken on his ranch earn him a few thousand dollars each year, he said, which amounts to about 10 to 15 percent of his annual income from the ranch. But he also just likes jaguars. “I’m interested in seeing animals, in preserving animals because they look pretty,” he said. It helps that jaguars haven’t caused him many problems. When he was young, Villarreal thought wild cats were bad because they ate cattle, a rancher’s livelihood. But over time he learned that predators will avoid calves as long as they have plenty of deer and javelina to eat. After sampling a bit of Villarreal’s homemade Bacanora — an agave-based liquor, similar to mezcal; my job is hard, I swear! — he took us to see one of his motion cameras. It was “nearby,” though getting there involved a short drive, a half-hour hike in the sun, and a run-in with a road runner, a manic-looking ground bird that always seems to be in a rush.Wolf and NJP field technician Heraclio “Laqui” Duarte López show us a map at an overlook on our way to the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxHiking in the reserve takes you across volcanic rocks and scrubland, often in the blistering heat. Ash Ponders for VoxA cattle skull on the outskirts of Peña’s ranch. Ash Ponders for VoxA vermilion flycatcher takes wing across the bank of the Aros River in the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxStrapped to a wooden post, the camera was plastic, colored in camo, and roughly the size of a brick. We opened it up and clicked through the recent photos. Me approaching. Rabbit. Deer. Fox. A raccoon-like creature called a ringtail. Coati. Ocelot. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina.And more javelina. I asked Villarreal what he thinks when he sees a wild cat on the camera. “1,500!” he joked, referring to the money in Mexican pesos he earns from each picture of an ocelot. He then added, more seriously: “It feels good to be able to say that they do exist.”To date, 21 ranchers near the reserve have joined Viviendo con Felinos. And together, their land comprises 126,000 acres — an area more than twice the size of the actual reserve. The program has in effect expanded the area across which jaguars and their prey are protected. What’s more, it’s so popular among ranchers that there’s actually an informal waitlist to join, Wolf said. NJP has been slowly growing the program, but adding more ranches — and all of the photos they may take — is expensive, Wolf noted. Between fall 2023 and fall 2024, NJP spent well over on photo awards alone. That doesn’t include staff time or the cost of cameras, which run around each. And those cameras often need to be replaced because, of all things, woodpeckers occasionally hammer out the lenses and sensors, Gómez told me.Viviendo con Felinos has given jaguars in Sonora more space to roam, and that alone is huge. But these iconic animals are also benefiting from a more fundamental shift in the region — a shift in its culture and customs. After our visit with Villarreal, we stopped at his neighbor’s property, a large ranch owned by Agustín Hurtado Aguayo. Hurtado, now in his 80s, is the former president of the state’s livestock association and a sizable figure in Sonora’s ranching community. Several years ago, “I hated felines,” he told me at his home in the city of Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, a few hours west of Sahuaripa. Cowboy hats and a pair of bull horns hung from the wall. “I had a very bad image of them,” Hurtado said. Agustín Hurtado Aguayo at his home in Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxRanch-life photos and a longhorn bull mount line the wall of Hurtado’s home. Ash Ponders for VoxHunting wild cats was a practice that older generations passed on, he said, and it stemmed from the belief that cats hurt production. “That’s the training we had,” he told me. It was also normal for cowboys to hunt and eat deer, he said, which diminished an important food source for predators.After Villarreal joined Viviendo con Felinos, Hurtado grew curious about the program. He liked the cat photos from his neighbor’s ranch. “When I began to see photos from the cameras, I began to appreciate the animals,” he said, showing me his iPhone wallpaper of a mountain lion. “Little by little, my vision of wild cats began to change.”Hurtado, who later also joined the program, realized that by limiting the number of cattle on his ranch, his cows would be healthier and there’d be more grass left over for deer. If he had more deer — and his workers refrained from hunting them — wild cats would kill fewer of his animals. These ideas are becoming increasingly common among ranchers in Sonora who have joined the program.“If we as ranchers or as owners of property preserve the normal food chain, we have no problem,” said Jose de la Cruz Coronado Aguayo, another rancher in Viviendo con Felinos. There are other ways, too, to protect cattle from predators, such as by making sure calves don’t roam the mountains alone. In other regions of the world, installing predator deterrents, such as electric fences, alarms, and flashing lights, is also effective in preventing predation. “Cats can really coexist with livestock,” Hurtado told me.The reserve is surrounded by cattle ranches that mostly sell calves for meat. Ash Ponders for VoxWhile it’s clear how photos of jaguars might make someone fall in love with wild cats, that doesn’t explain how ranchers like Hurtado learned how to farm in such a way that protects both felines and cattle. Wolf, of NJP, says it often comes down to individual experiences. Ranchers learn over time that by leaving deer alone or creating new water sources for animals, fewer livestock go missing. What’s also crucial, he said, is that by earning money for photos of cats, people in the program become more tolerant of their presence — and more open to compromise and finding ways to live with them. Before we left his home, Hurtado took out his laptop and showed us photos from the motion cameras on his ranch. They were spectacular: a mountain lion, close to the camera and wearing a look of surprise. An ocelot with what looks like a mouse in its mouth. And several jaguars, including the image below, taken in 2023 — which he had set as his desktop background. 1/3Photos from motion cameras on Hurtado’s ranch. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectNot everyone in Sonora suddenly loves cats. Ranchers still blame jaguars when their calves disappear or turn up dead. And some jaguars are still killed discreetly. One rancher who’s not part of Viviendo con Felinos told me that since November he’s lost more than a dozen of his calves, and he suspects that wild cats are behind the damage. He says the reserve should be fenced in for the benefit of ranchers.Tension in the region boiled over earlier this year, when a mountain lion apparently entered the house where a ranch worker was staying and attacked his dog. The worker, a man named Ricardo Vazquez Paredes, says he hit the cat with a pipe and the lion ran away, but not before injuring his dog, Blaki. While Wolf and some of the other ranchers I spoke to suspect his account might be exaggerated — it’s rare for mountain lions to go near human dwellings — the story raised concerns around Sahuaripa about jaguars and efforts to protect them. Climate change might also worsen conflict in the region. Ranchers I spoke to say Sonora is getting drier, meaning there will be less and less grass for cattle — and for animals like deer that wild cats eat. That could make cows weaker and more likely to starve and jaguars hungrier and more likely to attack. Research suggests that jaguars kill more calves when it’s dry. In 2023, a rancher in Viviendo con Felinos named Diego Ezrre Romero lost a calf to a jaguar. “The most critical thing on my ranch is water,” Ezrre told me. “There are few deer because of the conditions.”Diego Ezrre Romero, a rancher in the Viviendo con Felinos program, in the verdant courtyard of his home in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxThis is to say: Conflict in Sonora isn’t about to disappear altogether. Yet Viviendo con Felinos appears to be helping. Along with NJP’s other efforts to engage the community — education programs, for example, and painting murals that depict the iconic cats in Sahuaripa and other towns — the group is making ranchers in jaguar territory more tolerant to cats. And thanks to payments, more tolerant to losses that they may cause. “Without themthere wouldn’t even be a jaguar here right now,” said Fausto Lorenzo, a rancher near Sahuaripa who’s not affiliated with the reserve. “All the ranchers would have killed them because that was the custom.”From Hurtado’s home in Hermosillo, we drove back toward Arizona. The highway cut through fields of saguaro cactuses. Dust devils spun in the distance, moving like flying whirlpools across the scrubland.The sun sets behind the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains near the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxThe success that NJP has had in Mexico ultimately bodes well for efforts to restore jaguars to the US. The number of jaguars in the reserve is stable, Gutiérrez says, but motion cameras suggest that year-over-year more individuals are passing through the region. That’s more individuals that could potentially spill into the US.One big problem, however, remains. As we neared the US border, the wall came into focus. It was metal and brown and rose 18 feet above the desert. Now stretching hundreds of miles across the Southwest, the wall has made the border largely impassive to wildlife — including jaguars. And it’s still expanding. The Trump administration is now planning to complete one of the last unwalled sections of the border, a 25-mile stretch in the San Rafael Valley, about 150 miles northwest of the refuge, where jaguars have crossed into the US. The future for Sonora’s jaguars appears promising regardless of whether Trump finishes his wall. NJP and other organizations have given these animals more space to live and helped lessen the threats they face. The real loss will be felt in the US. And not just among environmentalists and other wildcat advocates. Jaguars have lived in the US long before any of us. They’re part of the country’s nature heritage — of the ecosystems that are truly American — and their absence leaves our landscapes impaired. Ranchers in Sonora teach us that we can live alongside the continent’s great predators. We just have to choose to. Update, May 20, 11:25 am ET: This piece was originally published on May 20 and updated to include both peso and dollar amounts where applicable.See More: #these #photos #are #literally #saving
    WWW.VOX.COM
    These photos are literally saving jaguars
    Haga clic aquí para leer esta historia en español.SONORA, Mexico — This landscape didn’t seem like a place to find jaguars, the world’s most famous jungle cat. The ground was parched and rocky and mostly brown, other than the occasional cactus or palm tree. It was so hot and dry that even some of the prickly nopales were wilting.Yet there it was — in the playback screen of a motion-sensing camera, strapped to an oak tree near a dry stream bed. Less than a week earlier, a large jaguar had walked exactly where I was now standing. Even from the small camera display, the cat looked imposing, with its oversized paws and a wide, skull-crushing jaw. The Northern Jaguar Reserve is nestled in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. During our visit in April, the dry season, there was little green vegetation other than desert plants like organ pipe cactuses and agave. Ash Ponders for VoxIt was a blistering afternoon in April, and I was in the Northern Jaguar Reserve, a protected area in Sonora about 125 miles south of the US border in Arizona. The reserve and the region around it are home to the world’s northernmost population of jaguars, the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere, as well as three other species of wild felines: ocelots, bobcats, and mountain lions, or pumas.The cat on the screen was named El Guapo. He’s the largest of five or six resident jaguars in the reserve and has likely fathered a handful of kittens, Miguel Gómez Ramírez, the reserve manager, told me.El Guapo has a bold personality: While some of the park’s jaguars get spooked by the flash or sound of motion cameras scattered through the reserve, jumping in the air like surprised house cats, El Guapo doesn’t seem to care. It’s as if he knows he’s at the top of the food chain. 1/4El Guapo. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectWhile jaguars are often associated with the tropics, they once ranged as far north as Southern California, the Grand Canyon, and possibly even Louisiana. The US had jaguars! Then they were gone. By the mid-1900s, ranchers and hunters had exterminated these felines, largely because they were seen — like many other wild predators — as a threat to cattle. Jaguars do occasionally kill cows, though few cases of livestock predation in the US have actually been verified. Over the last few decades, several male jaguars have been spotted in their historic territory in the American Southwest — most recently, in December 2023. The extraordinary sightings give environmental advocates hope that jaguars could one day return to the US, fixing a broken food chain and recovering an important missing piece of Indigenous culture in the southern borderlands.A jaguar pelt is on display at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo in the state capital of Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxThose cats all came from northern Mexico. They came from the region where I was now standing, slipping through some of the last remaining gaps in the border wall. That means any chance that jaguars now have of returning to the US depends on maintaining openings in the wall — and on an ample reserve of cats in northern Mexico. Jaguars can only reestablish in their northern range if they’re sufficiently abundant in Mexico, where they’re endangered. And like in the US, ranchers in Sonora have a long history of killing felines for their perceived, and occasionally real, threat to cattle. While the Northern Jaguar Reserve helps protect wild cats in Sonora, what had ultimately brought me to Mexico was a project to conserve jaguars that extends far beyond the park’s boundary. For many years, a small group of scientists and advocates have been working to cast Sonora’s jaguars in a different light — to turn them from beef-hungry villains to important features of the ecosystem that can bring ranchers financial reward. Those efforts appear to be paying off: The population of jaguars in the reserve and the ranching region around it is stable, if not growing, offering hope that people can live harmoniously with the predators they once loathed.The Northern Jaguar Reserve is, without exaggerating, in the middle of nowhere.I traveled there last month with Roberto Wolf, a veterinarian who leads the Northern Jaguar Project (NJP), an American nonprofit that oversees the refuge. After crossing the border south of Tucson, we drove another four hours or so to a charming ranch town called Sahuaripa, where the narrow streets were lined with brightly colored homes and full of stray dogs.Homes in the town of Sahuaripa are brightly painted and often have crosses mounted on their front doors. Ash Ponders for VoxA man named Don Francisco sells warm tortillas at dawn in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxA one-armed statue of Jesus overlooks the town of Sahuaripa. The other arm, I was told, fell off in a lightning storm. Ash Ponders for VoxFrom there it was another few hours on to the reserve, largely on rugged dirt roads. (I felt like we were in one of those car commercials for all-terrain vehicles that are only useful in this exact scenario.)Some time after entering the reserve we stopped by a log on the side of the road. It was covered in scratch marks, like the arm of a couch in a home filled with cats. That was the work of a mountain lion marking its territory, said Gómez, who met us in the park. He pointed out a motion camera nearby that had previously captured the behavior. Right before arriving at our campsite, a skunk ran across the front of the car, did a handstand, and then disappeared into the scrub. The next morning, which was cloudless and crisp, we hiked to a place called La Hielería — the spot where the trail cam had recently spotted El Guapo. Large winged shadows crossed our paths, cast by vultures hunting for carcasses. On the drive from Arizona to Sahuaripa, we crossed the Yaqui River, just west of the Northern Jaguar Reserve. It cuts through the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Ash Ponders for VoxDozens of motion-detecting trail cameras are scattered throughout the reserve. Here, the display shows a mountain lion that walked by several days earlier. Ash Ponders for VoxLa Hielería, once part of a cattle ranch, has an important place in cat conservation. In the late 1990s, when jaguars were reappearing in the US, a team of researchers began exploring northern Mexico to find out where they were coming from. As part of that work, a biologist named Gustavo Pablo Lorenzana Piña set up a motion camera by a stream bed in La Hielería. The camera captured, as expected, cow after cow after cow. But then, as Lorenzana kept clicking through, he saw it: a jaguar, “the undisputed ruler of the neotropical forests, captured in a beautiful shot with shrubs and cacti in the background,” he said. The image, taken in early 2000, was the first ever photo of a live jaguar in Sonora. It was a female, later named Gus, in honor of Gustavo.The first ever photo taken of a live jaguar in Sonora. GP Lorenzana/CA López-GonzálezHer story ended — as most other jaguar tales do — at the hands of humans. The animal was pursued and killed for allegedly harming cattle, Lorenzana told me. Although it’s technically illegal to kill jaguars in Mexico, hunting them for real or perceived harm to livestock was once a common practice. And it’s still a threat today. In the late 20th century, at least five animals were killed on average per year in the state, according to the book Borderland Jaguars by David Brown and NJP co-founder Carlos López González.One man I met, in his 70s, told me he’d killed six jaguars on a ranch that is now part of the reserve. (He’d typically use dogs to track down the cats and chase them into a cave or a tree. Then he’d shoot them.) Ranch owners would pay around 5,000 Mexican pesos — worth around $260 in today’s US dollars, and nearly double that in the early 2000s — per slain jaguar. Heraclio “Laco” Duarte Robles killed several jaguars when he worked for a ranch in what is now the reserve. Now Laco is employed by the Northern Jaguar Project, where he helps keep the cats alive. Ash Ponders for VoxJaguars do occasionally kill calves, though they prefer to feed on wild prey, such as deer or javelina, a small, fierce peccary that looks like a pig. In Sonora, jaguars and pumas might each kill a few calves per year, which typically amounts to only a fraction of a rancher’s production.While Gus was on the losing side of encounters between ranchers and cats, she left a lasting conservation legacy. By showing up on a trail cam in La Hielería, she helped prove that Sonora was home to a breeding population of jaguars. That spurred an effort to buy up ranches — including the one comprising La Hielería — and turn them into a reserve. NJP purchased its first ranch in 2003, and has since added several more. Together they cover more than 56,000 acres. Today the Northern Jaguar Reserve has a small yet healthy population of five or six jaguars, according to Carmina Gutiérrez González, a biologist at NJP. Motion cameras have spotted another 10 or so jaguars passing through the region, said Gutiérrez, who identifies individuals by their unique patterns of spots. Our only in-person encounter with a jaguar was at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo within a half-day’s drive from the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxAfter seeing El Guapo on the camera in La Hielería I wandered down the dry stream bed, where I stumbled upon a pile of feces. Jaguar feces, Gómez suspected. I’ve never been so excited to find a pile of shit in my life. People like Gómez who have spent more than a decade in the reserve have never seen jaguars face to face. My chance was close to zero. So poop? I’ll take it.The reserve is essential though insufficient — it’s relatively small, covering less than 3 percent of the area of Yellowstone, for example. Jaguars in Sonora, meanwhile, have incredibly large home ranges, and can travel as much as 10 miles a day, Gómez said. Protecting them in one small area isn’t enough in a region where hunting still occurs. So the Northern Jaguar Project had came up with another solution.One morning, after a few nights in the reserve, we drove to a cattle ranch just beyond the boundary. We parked our dusty 4Runner next to a handful of cows and their calves, who froze and stared at us as if they had never seen humans before. Uriel Villarreal Peña on his ranch, Saucito, near the Northern Jaguar Reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxA rancher named Uriel Villarreal Peña, who owns the property, came out to greet us, trailed by two dogs. As we sat around his outdoor table, under the shade of a tin roof, he told us he owns a little more than 100 cattle — each worth several hundred dollars — that he sells in Sahuaripa to be exported to the US.For more than a decade, Villarreal, who wore a ball cap, jeans, and a button-down shirt, has been part of a program called Viviendo con Felinos. The program, launched by NJP in 2007, works with ranchers to place motion cameras on their land. When those cameras detect a wild cat — a jaguar, puma, ocelot, or bobcat — the nonprofit pays the rancher from a pool of funds they’ve raised from donors. The idea, Wolf told me, is “to make living wild animals more valuable than dead ones.”Photos of jaguars are worth 5,000 pesos each (~$260), which is similar to what hunters might make for killing them. Photos of ocelots earn 1,500 pesos (~$78), pumas 1,000 pesos (~$52), and bobcats 5,000 pesos (~$26). Each rancher can earn a max of 20,000 pesos (~$1,038) a month for their photos — more than double the minimum monthly wage in Mexico. By joining Viviendo con Felinos, ranchers also agree not to kill any wild animals on their ranch, including deer and javelina. Roberto Wolf rests for a moment on our hike in La Hielería. Ash Ponders for Vox(Mexico has another, unrelated program run by its national livestock confederation that partially reimburses ranchers for cattle killed by wild predators. Ranchers complain that these funds, which are similarly meant to reduce hunting, are hard to access and inadequate.)Villarreal told me he joined the NJP program partly for the money. Cat photos taken on his ranch earn him a few thousand dollars each year, he said, which amounts to about 10 to 15 percent of his annual income from the ranch. But he also just likes jaguars. “I’m interested in seeing animals, in preserving animals because they look pretty,” he said. It helps that jaguars haven’t caused him many problems. When he was young, Villarreal thought wild cats were bad because they ate cattle, a rancher’s livelihood. But over time he learned that predators will avoid calves as long as they have plenty of deer and javelina to eat. After sampling a bit of Villarreal’s homemade Bacanora — an agave-based liquor, similar to mezcal; my job is hard, I swear! — he took us to see one of his motion cameras. It was “nearby,” though getting there involved a short drive, a half-hour hike in the sun, and a run-in with a road runner, a manic-looking ground bird that always seems to be in a rush.Wolf and NJP field technician Heraclio “Laqui” Duarte López show us a map at an overlook on our way to the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxHiking in the reserve takes you across volcanic rocks and scrubland, often in the blistering heat. Ash Ponders for VoxA cattle skull on the outskirts of Peña’s ranch. Ash Ponders for VoxA vermilion flycatcher takes wing across the bank of the Aros River in the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxStrapped to a wooden post, the camera was plastic, colored in camo, and roughly the size of a brick. We opened it up and clicked through the recent photos. Me approaching. Rabbit. Deer. Fox. A raccoon-like creature called a ringtail. Coati. Ocelot. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina.And more javelina. I asked Villarreal what he thinks when he sees a wild cat on the camera. “1,500!” he joked, referring to the money in Mexican pesos he earns from each picture of an ocelot. He then added, more seriously: “It feels good to be able to say that they do exist.”To date, 21 ranchers near the reserve have joined Viviendo con Felinos. And together, their land comprises 126,000 acres — an area more than twice the size of the actual reserve. The program has in effect expanded the area across which jaguars and their prey are protected. What’s more, it’s so popular among ranchers that there’s actually an informal waitlist to join, Wolf said. NJP has been slowly growing the program, but adding more ranches — and all of the photos they may take — is expensive, Wolf noted. Between fall 2023 and fall 2024, NJP spent well over $100,000 on photo awards alone. That doesn’t include staff time or the cost of cameras, which run around $150 each. And those cameras often need to be replaced because, of all things, woodpeckers occasionally hammer out the lenses and sensors, Gómez told me.Viviendo con Felinos has given jaguars in Sonora more space to roam, and that alone is huge. But these iconic animals are also benefiting from a more fundamental shift in the region — a shift in its culture and customs. After our visit with Villarreal, we stopped at his neighbor’s property, a large ranch owned by Agustín Hurtado Aguayo. Hurtado, now in his 80s, is the former president of the state’s livestock association and a sizable figure in Sonora’s ranching community. Several years ago, “I hated felines,” he told me at his home in the city of Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, a few hours west of Sahuaripa. Cowboy hats and a pair of bull horns hung from the wall. “I had a very bad image of them,” Hurtado said. Agustín Hurtado Aguayo at his home in Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxRanch-life photos and a longhorn bull mount line the wall of Hurtado’s home. Ash Ponders for VoxHunting wild cats was a practice that older generations passed on, he said, and it stemmed from the belief that cats hurt production. “That’s the training we had,” he told me. It was also normal for cowboys to hunt and eat deer, he said, which diminished an important food source for predators.After Villarreal joined Viviendo con Felinos, Hurtado grew curious about the program. He liked the cat photos from his neighbor’s ranch. “When I began to see photos from the cameras, I began to appreciate the animals,” he said, showing me his iPhone wallpaper of a mountain lion. “Little by little, my vision of wild cats began to change.”Hurtado, who later also joined the program, realized that by limiting the number of cattle on his ranch, his cows would be healthier and there’d be more grass left over for deer. If he had more deer — and his workers refrained from hunting them — wild cats would kill fewer of his animals. These ideas are becoming increasingly common among ranchers in Sonora who have joined the program.“If we as ranchers or as owners of property preserve the normal food chain, we have no problem,” said Jose de la Cruz Coronado Aguayo, another rancher in Viviendo con Felinos. There are other ways, too, to protect cattle from predators, such as by making sure calves don’t roam the mountains alone. In other regions of the world, installing predator deterrents, such as electric fences, alarms, and flashing lights, is also effective in preventing predation. “Cats can really coexist with livestock,” Hurtado told me.The reserve is surrounded by cattle ranches that mostly sell calves for meat. Ash Ponders for VoxWhile it’s clear how photos of jaguars might make someone fall in love with wild cats, that doesn’t explain how ranchers like Hurtado learned how to farm in such a way that protects both felines and cattle. Wolf, of NJP, says it often comes down to individual experiences. Ranchers learn over time that by leaving deer alone or creating new water sources for animals, fewer livestock go missing. What’s also crucial, he said, is that by earning money for photos of cats, people in the program become more tolerant of their presence — and more open to compromise and finding ways to live with them. Before we left his home, Hurtado took out his laptop and showed us photos from the motion cameras on his ranch. They were spectacular: a mountain lion, close to the camera and wearing a look of surprise. An ocelot with what looks like a mouse in its mouth. And several jaguars, including the image below, taken in 2023 — which he had set as his desktop background. 1/3Photos from motion cameras on Hurtado’s ranch. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectNot everyone in Sonora suddenly loves cats. Ranchers still blame jaguars when their calves disappear or turn up dead. And some jaguars are still killed discreetly. One rancher who’s not part of Viviendo con Felinos told me that since November he’s lost more than a dozen of his calves, and he suspects that wild cats are behind the damage. He says the reserve should be fenced in for the benefit of ranchers. (There’s no evidence that mountain lions or jaguars killed his calves, Wolf said.)Tension in the region boiled over earlier this year, when a mountain lion apparently entered the house where a ranch worker was staying and attacked his dog. The worker, a man named Ricardo Vazquez Paredes, says he hit the cat with a pipe and the lion ran away, but not before injuring his dog, Blaki. While Wolf and some of the other ranchers I spoke to suspect his account might be exaggerated — it’s rare for mountain lions to go near human dwellings — the story raised concerns around Sahuaripa about jaguars and efforts to protect them. Climate change might also worsen conflict in the region. Ranchers I spoke to say Sonora is getting drier, meaning there will be less and less grass for cattle — and for animals like deer that wild cats eat. That could make cows weaker and more likely to starve and jaguars hungrier and more likely to attack. Research suggests that jaguars kill more calves when it’s dry. In 2023, a rancher in Viviendo con Felinos named Diego Ezrre Romero lost a calf to a jaguar. “The most critical thing on my ranch is water,” Ezrre told me. “There are few deer because of the conditions.”Diego Ezrre Romero, a rancher in the Viviendo con Felinos program, in the verdant courtyard of his home in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxThis is to say: Conflict in Sonora isn’t about to disappear altogether. Yet Viviendo con Felinos appears to be helping. Along with NJP’s other efforts to engage the community — education programs, for example, and painting murals that depict the iconic cats in Sahuaripa and other towns — the group is making ranchers in jaguar territory more tolerant to cats. And thanks to payments, more tolerant to losses that they may cause. “Without them [NJP] there wouldn’t even be a jaguar here right now,” said Fausto Lorenzo, a rancher near Sahuaripa who’s not affiliated with the reserve. “All the ranchers would have killed them because that was the custom.”From Hurtado’s home in Hermosillo, we drove back toward Arizona. The highway cut through fields of saguaro cactuses. Dust devils spun in the distance, moving like flying whirlpools across the scrubland.The sun sets behind the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains near the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxThe success that NJP has had in Mexico ultimately bodes well for efforts to restore jaguars to the US. The number of jaguars in the reserve is stable, Gutiérrez says, but motion cameras suggest that year-over-year more individuals are passing through the region. That’s more individuals that could potentially spill into the US.One big problem, however, remains. As we neared the US border, the wall came into focus. It was metal and brown and rose 18 feet above the desert. Now stretching hundreds of miles across the Southwest, the wall has made the border largely impassive to wildlife — including jaguars. And it’s still expanding. The Trump administration is now planning to complete one of the last unwalled sections of the border, a 25-mile stretch in the San Rafael Valley, about 150 miles northwest of the refuge, where jaguars have crossed into the US. The future for Sonora’s jaguars appears promising regardless of whether Trump finishes his wall. NJP and other organizations have given these animals more space to live and helped lessen the threats they face. The real loss will be felt in the US. And not just among environmentalists and other wildcat advocates. Jaguars have lived in the US long before any of us. They’re part of the country’s nature heritage — of the ecosystems that are truly American — and their absence leaves our landscapes impaired. Ranchers in Sonora teach us that we can live alongside the continent’s great predators. We just have to choose to. Update, May 20, 11:25 am ET: This piece was originally published on May 20 and updated to include both peso and dollar amounts where applicable.See More:
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  • Trump administration moves to terminate Energy Star program

    The Environmental Protection Agencyand the Department of Energylaunched the Energy Star program in 1992 as part of the Clean Air Act. The program was passed with strong bipartisan support under the President George H. W. Bush administration. It’s used to designate and promote energy-efficient appliances and architecture. Energy Star’s 33-year run may soon end, however.

    Since 1992, Energy Star has helped U.S. families and businesses save billion in energy costs, and has staved off approximately 4 billion metric tons of climate pollution in the form of greenhouse gases. Energy Star Buildings meet stringent performance metrics established by the EPA, based on a 1 to 100 scale—buildings must achieve a 75 for Energy Star rating.
    A recent Office of Air and Pollutionmeeting alerted reporters to the Trump administration’s plan to terminate the program. EPA director Lee Zeldin, on May 2, announced plans to scale down the EPA more broadly, albeit without explicitly mentioning the Energy Star program.
    Zeldin said the White House’s proposed changes to the EPA could save taxpayers billion, but didn’t give details as to how. Zeldin also said, “EPA expects to have employment levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.”
    Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic Senator of New Hampshire, called the decision to terminate Energy Star a win for billionaires.
    “Let’s be clear: Cutting the popular Energy Star program—which helps everyday households and businesses save on their energy bills—would mark another rash attempt by this administration to line the pockets of billionaires and utility companies at the expense of hardworking Americans,” Shaheen said in a statement.

    Ted Kelly, U.S. Clean Energy, Environmental Defense Fund director, was also quick to respond.
    “For more than three decades,” Kelly said, “the Energy Star program has helped American families shop for reliably energy-efficient home appliances that would save them money. Generations have looked for the blue Energy Star label in stores when they were buying a refrigerator or dishwasher and wanted something they could trust.”
    Kelly continued: “Companies chose to participate in the voluntary program because they knew their customers liked it.”
    After the decision was made public, over 1,000 companies wrote letters to the EPA in support of the Energy Star program. Vivian Loftness, an architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said: “This takes us out of a position of leadership.” In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, William K. Reilly a former administrator of the EPA, called it “a case of mistaken identity.” Adding that “In its antipathy to climate activism, the EPA has taken an ax to that rare government program embraced by both seller and buyer, builder and environmentalist, because everyone comes out ahead.”
    The announcements comes not long after other defunding efforts, Medicaid being a hot button one. The proposed 2026 federal budget deprives architecture schools and nonprofits of vital resources, as part of National Endowment for the Arts cuts. Zeldin previously slashed EPA spending, taking aim at billion in grants that would have supported sustainability initiatives, DEI, natural disaster relief, and environmental justice work.
    AN reached out to the EPA and DOE for comment.
    #trump #administration #moves #terminate #energy
    Trump administration moves to terminate Energy Star program
    The Environmental Protection Agencyand the Department of Energylaunched the Energy Star program in 1992 as part of the Clean Air Act. The program was passed with strong bipartisan support under the President George H. W. Bush administration. It’s used to designate and promote energy-efficient appliances and architecture. Energy Star’s 33-year run may soon end, however. Since 1992, Energy Star has helped U.S. families and businesses save billion in energy costs, and has staved off approximately 4 billion metric tons of climate pollution in the form of greenhouse gases. Energy Star Buildings meet stringent performance metrics established by the EPA, based on a 1 to 100 scale—buildings must achieve a 75 for Energy Star rating. A recent Office of Air and Pollutionmeeting alerted reporters to the Trump administration’s plan to terminate the program. EPA director Lee Zeldin, on May 2, announced plans to scale down the EPA more broadly, albeit without explicitly mentioning the Energy Star program. Zeldin said the White House’s proposed changes to the EPA could save taxpayers billion, but didn’t give details as to how. Zeldin also said, “EPA expects to have employment levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.” Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic Senator of New Hampshire, called the decision to terminate Energy Star a win for billionaires. “Let’s be clear: Cutting the popular Energy Star program—which helps everyday households and businesses save on their energy bills—would mark another rash attempt by this administration to line the pockets of billionaires and utility companies at the expense of hardworking Americans,” Shaheen said in a statement. Ted Kelly, U.S. Clean Energy, Environmental Defense Fund director, was also quick to respond. “For more than three decades,” Kelly said, “the Energy Star program has helped American families shop for reliably energy-efficient home appliances that would save them money. Generations have looked for the blue Energy Star label in stores when they were buying a refrigerator or dishwasher and wanted something they could trust.” Kelly continued: “Companies chose to participate in the voluntary program because they knew their customers liked it.” After the decision was made public, over 1,000 companies wrote letters to the EPA in support of the Energy Star program. Vivian Loftness, an architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said: “This takes us out of a position of leadership.” In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, William K. Reilly a former administrator of the EPA, called it “a case of mistaken identity.” Adding that “In its antipathy to climate activism, the EPA has taken an ax to that rare government program embraced by both seller and buyer, builder and environmentalist, because everyone comes out ahead.” The announcements comes not long after other defunding efforts, Medicaid being a hot button one. The proposed 2026 federal budget deprives architecture schools and nonprofits of vital resources, as part of National Endowment for the Arts cuts. Zeldin previously slashed EPA spending, taking aim at billion in grants that would have supported sustainability initiatives, DEI, natural disaster relief, and environmental justice work. AN reached out to the EPA and DOE for comment. #trump #administration #moves #terminate #energy
    Trump administration moves to terminate Energy Star program
    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Energy Star program in 1992 as part of the Clean Air Act. The program was passed with strong bipartisan support under the President George H. W. Bush administration. It’s used to designate and promote energy-efficient appliances and architecture. Energy Star’s 33-year run may soon end, however. Since 1992, Energy Star has helped U.S. families and businesses save $500 billion in energy costs, and has staved off approximately 4 billion metric tons of climate pollution in the form of greenhouse gases. Energy Star Buildings meet stringent performance metrics established by the EPA, based on a 1 to 100 scale—buildings must achieve a 75 for Energy Star rating. A recent Office of Air and Pollution (OAP) meeting alerted reporters to the Trump administration’s plan to terminate the program. EPA director Lee Zeldin, on May 2, announced plans to scale down the EPA more broadly, albeit without explicitly mentioning the Energy Star program. Zeldin said the White House’s proposed changes to the EPA could save taxpayers $300 billion, but didn’t give details as to how. Zeldin also said, “EPA expects to have employment levels near those seen when President Ronald Reagan occupied the White House.” Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic Senator of New Hampshire, called the decision to terminate Energy Star a win for billionaires. “Let’s be clear: Cutting the popular Energy Star program—which helps everyday households and businesses save on their energy bills—would mark another rash attempt by this administration to line the pockets of billionaires and utility companies at the expense of hardworking Americans,” Shaheen said in a statement. Ted Kelly, U.S. Clean Energy, Environmental Defense Fund director, was also quick to respond. “For more than three decades,” Kelly said, “the Energy Star program has helped American families shop for reliably energy-efficient home appliances that would save them money. Generations have looked for the blue Energy Star label in stores when they were buying a refrigerator or dishwasher and wanted something they could trust.” Kelly continued: “Companies chose to participate in the voluntary program because they knew their customers liked it.” After the decision was made public, over 1,000 companies wrote letters to the EPA in support of the Energy Star program. Vivian Loftness, an architecture professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said: “This takes us out of a position of leadership.” In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, William K. Reilly a former administrator of the EPA, called it “a case of mistaken identity.” Adding that “In its antipathy to climate activism, the EPA has taken an ax to that rare government program embraced by both seller and buyer, builder and environmentalist, because everyone comes out ahead.” The announcements comes not long after other defunding efforts, Medicaid being a hot button one. The proposed 2026 federal budget deprives architecture schools and nonprofits of vital resources, as part of National Endowment for the Arts cuts. Zeldin previously slashed EPA spending, taking aim at $2 billion in grants that would have supported sustainability initiatives, DEI, natural disaster relief, and environmental justice work. AN reached out to the EPA and DOE for comment.
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  • Is the New Pope an Environmentalist?

    Anita Hofschneider & Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist

    Published May 18, 2025

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    Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost arrives on the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time. © ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

    On a sweltering January day in 2018, Pope Francis addressed 100,000 of the faithful in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, not far from where gold mining had ravaged an expanse of Amazon rainforest about the size of Colorado. “The native Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as they are at present,” he told the crowd. He simultaneously condemned extractive industries and conservation efforts that “under the guise of preserving the forest, hoard great expanses of woodland and negotiate with them, leading to situations of oppression for the native peoples.” Francis denounced the insatiable consumerism that drives the destruction of the Amazon, supported those who say Indigenous peoples’ guardianship of their own territories should be respected, and urged everyone to defend isolated tribes. “Their cosmic vision and their wisdom have much to teach those of us who are not part of their culture,” he said. To Julio Cusurichi Palacios, an Indigenous leader who was in the stadium that day, the words from the head of the Catholic Church — which claims 1.4 billion members and has a long, sordid history of violence against Indigenous peoples worldwide — were welcome and momentous. “Few world leaders have spoken about our issues, and the pope said publicly the rights of Indigenous peoples were historically violated,” he said after Pope Francis died last month. “Let us hope that the new pope is a person who can continue implementing the position the pope who passed away has been talking about.” During his 12 years as pontiff, Francis radically reshaped how the world’s most powerful religious institution approached the moral and ethical call to protect the planet. Beyond his invocations for Indigenous rights, Francis acknowledged the Church’s role in colonization, and considered climate change a moral issue born of rampant consumption and materialism. As the Trump administration dismantles climate action and cuts funding to Indigenous peoples around the world — and far-right politics continues to rise globally — experts see the conclave’s selection of Robert Francis Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as he is now known, as a clear beacon that the faith-based climate justice movement his predecessor led isn’t going anywhere. In 2015, Pope Francis released his historic papal letter, or encyclical, titled Laudato si’. In the roughly 180-page document, he unequivocally identified planet-heating pollution as a pressing global issue disproportionately impacting the world’s poor, and condemned the outsize role wealthy countries like the U.S. have in contributing to the climate crisis. With it, Francis did what no pope had done before: He spoke with great clarity and urgency about human degradation of the environment being not just an environmental issue, but a social and moral one. Laudato si’ established the definitive connection between faith, climate change, and social justice, and made it a tenet of Catholic doctrine. The lasting influence of Francis’ encyclical would be buoyed by his other writings, homilies, and his direct appeals to world leaders. He was, for example, credited with helping rally nearly 200 countries to sign the 2015 Paris Agreement, regularly urged cooperation at international climate summits, and released a follow-up to his pioneering encyclical in 2023 that sounded the alarm in the face of the climate crisis. “Pope Francis routinely said that we have a throwaway society. We throw away people, we throw away nature … and that we really need a culture that’s much more based in care,” said Christopher Cox, executive director of the Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment and a former priest. “That means care for people, especially the most poor, the most vulnerable, the most marginalized. And we also need much greater care for creation. We’ve been given a beautiful earth and we’re consuming it at a rate that goes far beyond what will be able to sustain life for the long term.” The first Latin American pope, Francis was unique in implicitly embracing some elements of liberation theology, a Catholic social justice movement that calls for the liberation of marginalized peoples from oppression. Although Francis was occasionally critical of the doctrine’s Marxist elements and never fully supportive of it, many observers see his statements regarding poor and Indigenous peoples as reflective of the doctrine’s central values. “Right from the beginning of his papacy, that outreach, that recognition of Indigenous ways of being Catholic and Indigenous language in Catholicism, heralded — up to that point — the most expansive official recognition of Indigenous contributions to Catholicism thus far,” said Eben Levey, an assistant professor of history at Alfred University who has studied the relationship between Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples in Latin America. In the centuries since conquistadores arrived in the Americas and forced Indigenous peoples to accept their religion, many Indigenous communities have made Catholicism their own, and a growing number of church leaders have embraced the idea that there are multiple ways of being Catholic and that Catholicism and Indigenous cultures can coexist. A year after becoming pope, Francis approved the use of two Mayan languages, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in mass and sacraments like baptism and confession. In 2015 he expanded that list to include the Aztec language Nahuatl, and in 2016, during a visit to Mexico, he celebrated mass in Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol. In 2022, Francis officially apologized to Canada for the residential schools that ripped Indigenous children from their families, leading to the deaths of many who were later buried in unmarked graves. The following year, he rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, a religious concept that colonizers used to justify the illegal seizure of land from Indigenous peoples and became part of an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that described Native Americans as “savages.” “The Doctrine of Discovery is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church,” Pope Francis said, adding that he strongly supports the global implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He also drew a clear connection between those rights and climate action: In 2023, he made clear that Indigenous peoples are critical to fighting climate change when he said, “Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the Earth is a serious mistake, not to say a great injustice.” But Pope Francis’ progressivism had its limits. In 2019, he called for a meeting of church leaders, known as the Synod of Bishops, for the Pan-Amazon region to address issues affecting the Amazon Basin. Indigenous Catholics who attended brought up illegal logging and violence against land defenders and proposed reforms. “The ancestral wisdom of the aboriginal peoples affirms that mother earth has a feminine face,” reads the document that emerged from the gathering and urged the church to give women more leadership roles and allow married deacons to be ordained as priests. In his response, Francis condemned corporations that destroy the Amazon as committing “injustice and crime,” yet refused to embrace the proposals to make church leadership more inclusive of women and married men. Francis’ climate activism was also riddled in constraint. He transformed how religious institutions viewed the climate crisis, framing a failure to act on it as a brutal injustice toward the most vulnerable, but could have implemented “more direct institutional action,” said Nadia Ahmad, a Barry University School of Law associate professor who has studied faith-based environmental action. Though the former pontiff publicly supported renewable energy adoption, called for fossil fuel disinvestment, and prompted churches across the world to go solar, he did not mandate what he deemed a “radical energy transition” across dioceses, schools, and hospitals. The work he accomplished “could have been amplified a bit more and had more accountability,” said Ahmad. But that limitation, she noted, likely stemmed from contradictory politics playing out within the church — many traditional, conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States, resisted Francis’ progressive teachings. A 2021 study found that over a period of five years, most U.S. bishops were “nearly silent and sometimes even misleading,” in their official messaging to parishioners about climate change and the pope’s famed encyclical. Though Pope Leo XIV has been lauded for his advocacy in defense of immigrants and worker rights — his namesake, Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 until 1903 is known as a historical Catholic champion of social justice and equality — the new pope’s track record on engaging directly with climate change is sparse. Still, Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, sees comments the new pope made last year on the need to move “from words to action” as a promising sign that he will continue Francis’ commitment to communicating the urgency of a warming world. The timing of the conclave’s unprecedented decision to select the first pontiff from the United States, coming amid the Trump administration’s sweeping dismissal of climate action, elimination of environmental protections, and attacks on Indigenous rights, isn’t lost on her. “It may be a signal to say ‘America, come back into the world community, come back into a planetary future where we collectively have been working to create a future worthy of our children and our children’s children,’” she said. Leo grew up in Chicago and is a citizen of both the U.S. and Peru, where he spent decades serving as a missionary and bishop before Francis made him a cardinal in 2023. He speaks five languages fluently and some Quechua, an Indigenous Incan language. While he was working in Peru in the 1990s, Leo was critical of the government’s human rights abuses — though he refrained from explicitly taking sides in the political fight between Maoist rebels and the government of then-dictator Alberto Fujimori, according to Matthew Casey, a historian and clinical associate professor at Arizona State University based in Lima. Still, his reaction to the country’s authoritarianism could provide a glimpse of what stances he might take as pope, Casey said. “It doesn’t matter who was abusing human rights, he was on the side of the people,” he said. In 2016, the would-be pontiff spoke at a conference in Brazil where attendees talked about threats to the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples who lived there. He praised Francis’ encyclical, describing the document as “very important,” and representing “something new in terms of this explicit expression of the church’s concern for all of creation.” To Casey, that suggests Pope Leo XIV, like his predecessor, has an awareness of the issues affecting Indigenous peoples, such as the rampant degradation of the environment. “Both Francis and Prevost are attuned to Indigeneity in ways that they couldn’t have been if they worked in Europe or the United States, because the politics of Indigeneity in Latin America are just so different,” Casey said. More than a week after the conclave that named him pope, communities across Peru are still celebrating the selection of Pope Leo XIV. Francis and Leo’s shared experiences working with marginalized communities harmed by colonialism and climate change, and their commitment to the social justice aspects of the church’s mission, are particularly meaningful in this political moment, said Levey, the Alfred University historian. “We are seeing a resurgence of ultra right wing politics globally, and the Catholic Church next to the United Nations is one of the few multilateral organizations perhaps capable of responding in some form or fashion to the questions of our modern age or contemporary moment,” he said. This article originally appeared in Grist at is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.

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    Matt Novak

    Published February 18, 2025
    #new #pope #environmentalist
    Is the New Pope an Environmentalist?
    Anita Hofschneider & Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist Published May 18, 2025 | Comments| Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost arrives on the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time. © ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images On a sweltering January day in 2018, Pope Francis addressed 100,000 of the faithful in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, not far from where gold mining had ravaged an expanse of Amazon rainforest about the size of Colorado. “The native Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as they are at present,” he told the crowd. He simultaneously condemned extractive industries and conservation efforts that “under the guise of preserving the forest, hoard great expanses of woodland and negotiate with them, leading to situations of oppression for the native peoples.” Francis denounced the insatiable consumerism that drives the destruction of the Amazon, supported those who say Indigenous peoples’ guardianship of their own territories should be respected, and urged everyone to defend isolated tribes. “Their cosmic vision and their wisdom have much to teach those of us who are not part of their culture,” he said. To Julio Cusurichi Palacios, an Indigenous leader who was in the stadium that day, the words from the head of the Catholic Church — which claims 1.4 billion members and has a long, sordid history of violence against Indigenous peoples worldwide — were welcome and momentous. “Few world leaders have spoken about our issues, and the pope said publicly the rights of Indigenous peoples were historically violated,” he said after Pope Francis died last month. “Let us hope that the new pope is a person who can continue implementing the position the pope who passed away has been talking about.” During his 12 years as pontiff, Francis radically reshaped how the world’s most powerful religious institution approached the moral and ethical call to protect the planet. Beyond his invocations for Indigenous rights, Francis acknowledged the Church’s role in colonization, and considered climate change a moral issue born of rampant consumption and materialism. As the Trump administration dismantles climate action and cuts funding to Indigenous peoples around the world — and far-right politics continues to rise globally — experts see the conclave’s selection of Robert Francis Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as he is now known, as a clear beacon that the faith-based climate justice movement his predecessor led isn’t going anywhere. In 2015, Pope Francis released his historic papal letter, or encyclical, titled Laudato si’. In the roughly 180-page document, he unequivocally identified planet-heating pollution as a pressing global issue disproportionately impacting the world’s poor, and condemned the outsize role wealthy countries like the U.S. have in contributing to the climate crisis. With it, Francis did what no pope had done before: He spoke with great clarity and urgency about human degradation of the environment being not just an environmental issue, but a social and moral one. Laudato si’ established the definitive connection between faith, climate change, and social justice, and made it a tenet of Catholic doctrine. The lasting influence of Francis’ encyclical would be buoyed by his other writings, homilies, and his direct appeals to world leaders. He was, for example, credited with helping rally nearly 200 countries to sign the 2015 Paris Agreement, regularly urged cooperation at international climate summits, and released a follow-up to his pioneering encyclical in 2023 that sounded the alarm in the face of the climate crisis. “Pope Francis routinely said that we have a throwaway society. We throw away people, we throw away nature … and that we really need a culture that’s much more based in care,” said Christopher Cox, executive director of the Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment and a former priest. “That means care for people, especially the most poor, the most vulnerable, the most marginalized. And we also need much greater care for creation. We’ve been given a beautiful earth and we’re consuming it at a rate that goes far beyond what will be able to sustain life for the long term.” The first Latin American pope, Francis was unique in implicitly embracing some elements of liberation theology, a Catholic social justice movement that calls for the liberation of marginalized peoples from oppression. Although Francis was occasionally critical of the doctrine’s Marxist elements and never fully supportive of it, many observers see his statements regarding poor and Indigenous peoples as reflective of the doctrine’s central values. “Right from the beginning of his papacy, that outreach, that recognition of Indigenous ways of being Catholic and Indigenous language in Catholicism, heralded — up to that point — the most expansive official recognition of Indigenous contributions to Catholicism thus far,” said Eben Levey, an assistant professor of history at Alfred University who has studied the relationship between Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples in Latin America. In the centuries since conquistadores arrived in the Americas and forced Indigenous peoples to accept their religion, many Indigenous communities have made Catholicism their own, and a growing number of church leaders have embraced the idea that there are multiple ways of being Catholic and that Catholicism and Indigenous cultures can coexist. A year after becoming pope, Francis approved the use of two Mayan languages, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in mass and sacraments like baptism and confession. In 2015 he expanded that list to include the Aztec language Nahuatl, and in 2016, during a visit to Mexico, he celebrated mass in Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol. In 2022, Francis officially apologized to Canada for the residential schools that ripped Indigenous children from their families, leading to the deaths of many who were later buried in unmarked graves. The following year, he rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, a religious concept that colonizers used to justify the illegal seizure of land from Indigenous peoples and became part of an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that described Native Americans as “savages.” “The Doctrine of Discovery is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church,” Pope Francis said, adding that he strongly supports the global implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He also drew a clear connection between those rights and climate action: In 2023, he made clear that Indigenous peoples are critical to fighting climate change when he said, “Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the Earth is a serious mistake, not to say a great injustice.” But Pope Francis’ progressivism had its limits. In 2019, he called for a meeting of church leaders, known as the Synod of Bishops, for the Pan-Amazon region to address issues affecting the Amazon Basin. Indigenous Catholics who attended brought up illegal logging and violence against land defenders and proposed reforms. “The ancestral wisdom of the aboriginal peoples affirms that mother earth has a feminine face,” reads the document that emerged from the gathering and urged the church to give women more leadership roles and allow married deacons to be ordained as priests. In his response, Francis condemned corporations that destroy the Amazon as committing “injustice and crime,” yet refused to embrace the proposals to make church leadership more inclusive of women and married men. Francis’ climate activism was also riddled in constraint. He transformed how religious institutions viewed the climate crisis, framing a failure to act on it as a brutal injustice toward the most vulnerable, but could have implemented “more direct institutional action,” said Nadia Ahmad, a Barry University School of Law associate professor who has studied faith-based environmental action. Though the former pontiff publicly supported renewable energy adoption, called for fossil fuel disinvestment, and prompted churches across the world to go solar, he did not mandate what he deemed a “radical energy transition” across dioceses, schools, and hospitals. The work he accomplished “could have been amplified a bit more and had more accountability,” said Ahmad. But that limitation, she noted, likely stemmed from contradictory politics playing out within the church — many traditional, conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States, resisted Francis’ progressive teachings. A 2021 study found that over a period of five years, most U.S. bishops were “nearly silent and sometimes even misleading,” in their official messaging to parishioners about climate change and the pope’s famed encyclical. Though Pope Leo XIV has been lauded for his advocacy in defense of immigrants and worker rights — his namesake, Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 until 1903 is known as a historical Catholic champion of social justice and equality — the new pope’s track record on engaging directly with climate change is sparse. Still, Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, sees comments the new pope made last year on the need to move “from words to action” as a promising sign that he will continue Francis’ commitment to communicating the urgency of a warming world. The timing of the conclave’s unprecedented decision to select the first pontiff from the United States, coming amid the Trump administration’s sweeping dismissal of climate action, elimination of environmental protections, and attacks on Indigenous rights, isn’t lost on her. “It may be a signal to say ‘America, come back into the world community, come back into a planetary future where we collectively have been working to create a future worthy of our children and our children’s children,’” she said. Leo grew up in Chicago and is a citizen of both the U.S. and Peru, where he spent decades serving as a missionary and bishop before Francis made him a cardinal in 2023. He speaks five languages fluently and some Quechua, an Indigenous Incan language. While he was working in Peru in the 1990s, Leo was critical of the government’s human rights abuses — though he refrained from explicitly taking sides in the political fight between Maoist rebels and the government of then-dictator Alberto Fujimori, according to Matthew Casey, a historian and clinical associate professor at Arizona State University based in Lima. Still, his reaction to the country’s authoritarianism could provide a glimpse of what stances he might take as pope, Casey said. “It doesn’t matter who was abusing human rights, he was on the side of the people,” he said. In 2016, the would-be pontiff spoke at a conference in Brazil where attendees talked about threats to the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples who lived there. He praised Francis’ encyclical, describing the document as “very important,” and representing “something new in terms of this explicit expression of the church’s concern for all of creation.” To Casey, that suggests Pope Leo XIV, like his predecessor, has an awareness of the issues affecting Indigenous peoples, such as the rampant degradation of the environment. “Both Francis and Prevost are attuned to Indigeneity in ways that they couldn’t have been if they worked in Europe or the United States, because the politics of Indigeneity in Latin America are just so different,” Casey said. More than a week after the conclave that named him pope, communities across Peru are still celebrating the selection of Pope Leo XIV. Francis and Leo’s shared experiences working with marginalized communities harmed by colonialism and climate change, and their commitment to the social justice aspects of the church’s mission, are particularly meaningful in this political moment, said Levey, the Alfred University historian. “We are seeing a resurgence of ultra right wing politics globally, and the Catholic Church next to the United Nations is one of the few multilateral organizations perhaps capable of responding in some form or fashion to the questions of our modern age or contemporary moment,” he said. This article originally appeared in Grist at is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Matt Novak Published February 18, 2025 #new #pope #environmentalist
    GIZMODO.COM
    Is the New Pope an Environmentalist?
    Anita Hofschneider & Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist Published May 18, 2025 | Comments (0) | Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost arrives on the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time. © ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images On a sweltering January day in 2018, Pope Francis addressed 100,000 of the faithful in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, not far from where gold mining had ravaged an expanse of Amazon rainforest about the size of Colorado. “The native Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as they are at present,” he told the crowd. He simultaneously condemned extractive industries and conservation efforts that “under the guise of preserving the forest, hoard great expanses of woodland and negotiate with them, leading to situations of oppression for the native peoples.” Francis denounced the insatiable consumerism that drives the destruction of the Amazon, supported those who say Indigenous peoples’ guardianship of their own territories should be respected, and urged everyone to defend isolated tribes. “Their cosmic vision and their wisdom have much to teach those of us who are not part of their culture,” he said. To Julio Cusurichi Palacios, an Indigenous leader who was in the stadium that day, the words from the head of the Catholic Church — which claims 1.4 billion members and has a long, sordid history of violence against Indigenous peoples worldwide — were welcome and momentous. “Few world leaders have spoken about our issues, and the pope said publicly the rights of Indigenous peoples were historically violated,” he said after Pope Francis died last month. “Let us hope that the new pope is a person who can continue implementing the position the pope who passed away has been talking about.” During his 12 years as pontiff, Francis radically reshaped how the world’s most powerful religious institution approached the moral and ethical call to protect the planet. Beyond his invocations for Indigenous rights, Francis acknowledged the Church’s role in colonization, and considered climate change a moral issue born of rampant consumption and materialism. As the Trump administration dismantles climate action and cuts funding to Indigenous peoples around the world — and far-right politics continues to rise globally — experts see the conclave’s selection of Robert Francis Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as he is now known, as a clear beacon that the faith-based climate justice movement his predecessor led isn’t going anywhere. In 2015, Pope Francis released his historic papal letter, or encyclical, titled Laudato si’. In the roughly 180-page document, he unequivocally identified planet-heating pollution as a pressing global issue disproportionately impacting the world’s poor, and condemned the outsize role wealthy countries like the U.S. have in contributing to the climate crisis. With it, Francis did what no pope had done before: He spoke with great clarity and urgency about human degradation of the environment being not just an environmental issue, but a social and moral one. Laudato si’ established the definitive connection between faith, climate change, and social justice, and made it a tenet of Catholic doctrine. The lasting influence of Francis’ encyclical would be buoyed by his other writings, homilies, and his direct appeals to world leaders. He was, for example, credited with helping rally nearly 200 countries to sign the 2015 Paris Agreement, regularly urged cooperation at international climate summits, and released a follow-up to his pioneering encyclical in 2023 that sounded the alarm in the face of the climate crisis. “Pope Francis routinely said that we have a throwaway society. We throw away people, we throw away nature … and that we really need a culture that’s much more based in care,” said Christopher Cox, executive director of the Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment and a former priest. “That means care for people, especially the most poor, the most vulnerable, the most marginalized. And we also need much greater care for creation. We’ve been given a beautiful earth and we’re consuming it at a rate that goes far beyond what will be able to sustain life for the long term.” The first Latin American pope, Francis was unique in implicitly embracing some elements of liberation theology, a Catholic social justice movement that calls for the liberation of marginalized peoples from oppression. Although Francis was occasionally critical of the doctrine’s Marxist elements and never fully supportive of it, many observers see his statements regarding poor and Indigenous peoples as reflective of the doctrine’s central values. “Right from the beginning of his papacy, that outreach, that recognition of Indigenous ways of being Catholic and Indigenous language in Catholicism, heralded — up to that point — the most expansive official recognition of Indigenous contributions to Catholicism thus far,” said Eben Levey, an assistant professor of history at Alfred University who has studied the relationship between Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples in Latin America. In the centuries since conquistadores arrived in the Americas and forced Indigenous peoples to accept their religion, many Indigenous communities have made Catholicism their own, and a growing number of church leaders have embraced the idea that there are multiple ways of being Catholic and that Catholicism and Indigenous cultures can coexist. A year after becoming pope, Francis approved the use of two Mayan languages, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in mass and sacraments like baptism and confession. In 2015 he expanded that list to include the Aztec language Nahuatl, and in 2016, during a visit to Mexico, he celebrated mass in Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol. In 2022, Francis officially apologized to Canada for the residential schools that ripped Indigenous children from their families, leading to the deaths of many who were later buried in unmarked graves. The following year, he rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, a religious concept that colonizers used to justify the illegal seizure of land from Indigenous peoples and became part of an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that described Native Americans as “savages.” “The Doctrine of Discovery is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church,” Pope Francis said, adding that he strongly supports the global implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He also drew a clear connection between those rights and climate action: In 2023, he made clear that Indigenous peoples are critical to fighting climate change when he said, “Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the Earth is a serious mistake, not to say a great injustice.” But Pope Francis’ progressivism had its limits. In 2019, he called for a meeting of church leaders, known as the Synod of Bishops, for the Pan-Amazon region to address issues affecting the Amazon Basin. Indigenous Catholics who attended brought up illegal logging and violence against land defenders and proposed reforms. “The ancestral wisdom of the aboriginal peoples affirms that mother earth has a feminine face,” reads the document that emerged from the gathering and urged the church to give women more leadership roles and allow married deacons to be ordained as priests. In his response, Francis condemned corporations that destroy the Amazon as committing “injustice and crime,” yet refused to embrace the proposals to make church leadership more inclusive of women and married men. Francis’ climate activism was also riddled in constraint. He transformed how religious institutions viewed the climate crisis, framing a failure to act on it as a brutal injustice toward the most vulnerable, but could have implemented “more direct institutional action,” said Nadia Ahmad, a Barry University School of Law associate professor who has studied faith-based environmental action. Though the former pontiff publicly supported renewable energy adoption, called for fossil fuel disinvestment, and prompted churches across the world to go solar, he did not mandate what he deemed a “radical energy transition” across dioceses, schools, and hospitals. The work he accomplished “could have been amplified a bit more and had more accountability,” said Ahmad. But that limitation, she noted, likely stemmed from contradictory politics playing out within the church — many traditional, conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States, resisted Francis’ progressive teachings. A 2021 study found that over a period of five years, most U.S. bishops were “nearly silent and sometimes even misleading,” in their official messaging to parishioners about climate change and the pope’s famed encyclical. Though Pope Leo XIV has been lauded for his advocacy in defense of immigrants and worker rights — his namesake, Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 until 1903 is known as a historical Catholic champion of social justice and equality — the new pope’s track record on engaging directly with climate change is sparse. Still, Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, sees comments the new pope made last year on the need to move “from words to action” as a promising sign that he will continue Francis’ commitment to communicating the urgency of a warming world. The timing of the conclave’s unprecedented decision to select the first pontiff from the United States, coming amid the Trump administration’s sweeping dismissal of climate action, elimination of environmental protections, and attacks on Indigenous rights, isn’t lost on her. “It may be a signal to say ‘America, come back into the world community, come back into a planetary future where we collectively have been working to create a future worthy of our children and our children’s children,’” she said. Leo grew up in Chicago and is a citizen of both the U.S. and Peru, where he spent decades serving as a missionary and bishop before Francis made him a cardinal in 2023. He speaks five languages fluently and some Quechua, an Indigenous Incan language. While he was working in Peru in the 1990s, Leo was critical of the government’s human rights abuses — though he refrained from explicitly taking sides in the political fight between Maoist rebels and the government of then-dictator Alberto Fujimori, according to Matthew Casey, a historian and clinical associate professor at Arizona State University based in Lima. Still, his reaction to the country’s authoritarianism could provide a glimpse of what stances he might take as pope, Casey said. “It doesn’t matter who was abusing human rights, he was on the side of the people,” he said. In 2016, the would-be pontiff spoke at a conference in Brazil where attendees talked about threats to the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples who lived there. He praised Francis’ encyclical, describing the document as “very important,” and representing “something new in terms of this explicit expression of the church’s concern for all of creation.” To Casey, that suggests Pope Leo XIV, like his predecessor, has an awareness of the issues affecting Indigenous peoples, such as the rampant degradation of the environment. “Both Francis and Prevost are attuned to Indigeneity in ways that they couldn’t have been if they worked in Europe or the United States, because the politics of Indigeneity in Latin America are just so different,” Casey said. More than a week after the conclave that named him pope, communities across Peru are still celebrating the selection of Pope Leo XIV. Francis and Leo’s shared experiences working with marginalized communities harmed by colonialism and climate change, and their commitment to the social justice aspects of the church’s mission, are particularly meaningful in this political moment, said Levey, the Alfred University historian. “We are seeing a resurgence of ultra right wing politics globally, and the Catholic Church next to the United Nations is one of the few multilateral organizations perhaps capable of responding in some form or fashion to the questions of our modern age or contemporary moment,” he said. This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/international/pope-leo-climate-catholic-indigenous-francis/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Matt Novak Published February 18, 2025
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  • Superwood aims to replace steel and concrete with a sustainable alternative

    Forward-looking: As InventWood prepares to bring its first batches of Superwood to market, it stands as a testament to what can happen when scientific innovation meets entrepreneurial determination. If successful, Superwood could mark a turning point in the quest for greener, stronger, and more beautiful buildings.
    What began as a laboratory experiment at the University of Maryland is now poised to significantly influence construction practices. InventWood, a startup spun out of the university, is preparing to launch a new material known as Superwood – a wood-based product engineered to have a strength-to-weight ratio nearly ten times greater than steel, yet lighter and more sustainable.
    The story began in 2018, when Dr. Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, developed a patented technique that transforms ordinary timber into a material up to 12 times stronger and 10 times tougher than its original form.

    Instead of letting the discovery languish in academic obscurity, Dr. Hu further refined his technique, dramatically reducing the production time from over a week to just a few hours.
    Recognizing its commercial potential, Dr. Hu licensed the technology to InventWood, which is now led by CEO Alex Lau. With million recently secured in a Series A funding round, the company is preparing to open its first commercial production facility in Frederick, Maryland. Shipments of Superwood are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2025.
    Superwood's innovation lies in its molecular engineering. The process starts with ordinary wood, which is mostly composed of cellulose and lignin. By selectively removing certain components and applying "food industry" chemicals, InventWood strengthens the cellulose fibers, then compresses the material to increase the hydrogen bonds between molecules.
    // Related Stories

    This new material is not just strong, it's also highly functional. Superwood is resistant to fire, water, rot, and pests. It retains the natural warmth, texture, and beauty of wood, and with some polymer treatment, can be used for outdoor applications like siding, decking, and roofing.
    Initially, InventWood will focus on producing facade materials for commercial and high-end residential buildings. But the company's ambitions go further. Lau envisions a future where structural beams and other building components are made from Superwood, offering architects and builders a material that is not only high-performing but also environmentally responsible.

    The environmental benefits are significant. The construction industry is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, largely due to its reliance on concrete and steel. By offering a domestically sourced, sustainable alternative, InventWood aims to reduce the industry's carbon footprint while supporting American manufacturing and local economies.
    The company has also formed a strategic partnership with Intectural, a leading distributor of architectural materials, to accelerate Superwood's adoption across North America.
    InventWood's progress has attracted support from both public and private sectors, including the US Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and several climate-focused investment groups. Environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken has called Superwood "an extraordinary breakthrough that exalts the genius of the natural world," predicting it will play a pivotal role in the future of global construction.
    #superwood #aims #replace #steel #concrete
    Superwood aims to replace steel and concrete with a sustainable alternative
    Forward-looking: As InventWood prepares to bring its first batches of Superwood to market, it stands as a testament to what can happen when scientific innovation meets entrepreneurial determination. If successful, Superwood could mark a turning point in the quest for greener, stronger, and more beautiful buildings. What began as a laboratory experiment at the University of Maryland is now poised to significantly influence construction practices. InventWood, a startup spun out of the university, is preparing to launch a new material known as Superwood – a wood-based product engineered to have a strength-to-weight ratio nearly ten times greater than steel, yet lighter and more sustainable. The story began in 2018, when Dr. Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, developed a patented technique that transforms ordinary timber into a material up to 12 times stronger and 10 times tougher than its original form. Instead of letting the discovery languish in academic obscurity, Dr. Hu further refined his technique, dramatically reducing the production time from over a week to just a few hours. Recognizing its commercial potential, Dr. Hu licensed the technology to InventWood, which is now led by CEO Alex Lau. With million recently secured in a Series A funding round, the company is preparing to open its first commercial production facility in Frederick, Maryland. Shipments of Superwood are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2025. Superwood's innovation lies in its molecular engineering. The process starts with ordinary wood, which is mostly composed of cellulose and lignin. By selectively removing certain components and applying "food industry" chemicals, InventWood strengthens the cellulose fibers, then compresses the material to increase the hydrogen bonds between molecules. // Related Stories This new material is not just strong, it's also highly functional. Superwood is resistant to fire, water, rot, and pests. It retains the natural warmth, texture, and beauty of wood, and with some polymer treatment, can be used for outdoor applications like siding, decking, and roofing. Initially, InventWood will focus on producing facade materials for commercial and high-end residential buildings. But the company's ambitions go further. Lau envisions a future where structural beams and other building components are made from Superwood, offering architects and builders a material that is not only high-performing but also environmentally responsible. The environmental benefits are significant. The construction industry is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, largely due to its reliance on concrete and steel. By offering a domestically sourced, sustainable alternative, InventWood aims to reduce the industry's carbon footprint while supporting American manufacturing and local economies. The company has also formed a strategic partnership with Intectural, a leading distributor of architectural materials, to accelerate Superwood's adoption across North America. InventWood's progress has attracted support from both public and private sectors, including the US Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and several climate-focused investment groups. Environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken has called Superwood "an extraordinary breakthrough that exalts the genius of the natural world," predicting it will play a pivotal role in the future of global construction. #superwood #aims #replace #steel #concrete
    WWW.TECHSPOT.COM
    Superwood aims to replace steel and concrete with a sustainable alternative
    Forward-looking: As InventWood prepares to bring its first batches of Superwood to market, it stands as a testament to what can happen when scientific innovation meets entrepreneurial determination. If successful, Superwood could mark a turning point in the quest for greener, stronger, and more beautiful buildings. What began as a laboratory experiment at the University of Maryland is now poised to significantly influence construction practices. InventWood, a startup spun out of the university, is preparing to launch a new material known as Superwood – a wood-based product engineered to have a strength-to-weight ratio nearly ten times greater than steel, yet lighter and more sustainable. The story began in 2018, when Dr. Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, developed a patented technique that transforms ordinary timber into a material up to 12 times stronger and 10 times tougher than its original form. Instead of letting the discovery languish in academic obscurity, Dr. Hu further refined his technique, dramatically reducing the production time from over a week to just a few hours. Recognizing its commercial potential, Dr. Hu licensed the technology to InventWood, which is now led by CEO Alex Lau. With $15 million recently secured in a Series A funding round (part of more than $50 million raised to date), the company is preparing to open its first commercial production facility in Frederick, Maryland. Shipments of Superwood are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2025. Superwood's innovation lies in its molecular engineering. The process starts with ordinary wood, which is mostly composed of cellulose and lignin. By selectively removing certain components and applying "food industry" chemicals, InventWood strengthens the cellulose fibers, then compresses the material to increase the hydrogen bonds between molecules. // Related Stories This new material is not just strong, it's also highly functional. Superwood is resistant to fire, water, rot, and pests. It retains the natural warmth, texture, and beauty of wood, and with some polymer treatment, can be used for outdoor applications like siding, decking, and roofing. Initially, InventWood will focus on producing facade materials for commercial and high-end residential buildings. But the company's ambitions go further. Lau envisions a future where structural beams and other building components are made from Superwood, offering architects and builders a material that is not only high-performing but also environmentally responsible. The environmental benefits are significant. The construction industry is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, largely due to its reliance on concrete and steel. By offering a domestically sourced, sustainable alternative, InventWood aims to reduce the industry's carbon footprint while supporting American manufacturing and local economies. The company has also formed a strategic partnership with Intectural, a leading distributor of architectural materials, to accelerate Superwood's adoption across North America. InventWood's progress has attracted support from both public and private sectors, including the US Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and several climate-focused investment groups. Environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken has called Superwood "an extraordinary breakthrough that exalts the genius of the natural world," predicting it will play a pivotal role in the future of global construction.
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  • Baroque breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is unlike any game you’ve played before

    Much has been made of the fact that the year’s most recent breakout hit, an idiosyncratic role-playing game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a small team.. It’s a tempting narrative in this age of blockbuster mega-flops, live-service games and eye-watering budgets: scrappy team makes a lengthy, unusual and beautiful thing, sells it for £40, and everybody wins. But it’s not quite accurate.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Sandfall Interactive, the game’s French developer, comprises around 30 people, but as Rock Paper Shotgun points out, there are many more listed in the game’s credits – from a Korean animation team to the outsourced quality assurance testers, and the localisation and performance staff who give the game and its story heft and emotional believability.Compared to the enormous teams who make the Final Fantasy games – a clear inspiration for Sandfall – Clair Obscur’s team is minuscule. The more interesting achievement isn’t that a small team has made a successful game – it’s that a small team has made the most extravagantly French thing any of us will ever play. Much to my partner’s annoyance, I’ve set the voice language to French with English subtitles, just to enhance the immersion.In Clair Obscur’s belle époque-inspired world, a sinister entity called the Paintress daubs a number on a distant totem every year, descending from 100 – and every person of that age dissolves heartbreakingly into petals and dust, leaving behind devastated partners and orphaned children.The game starts as the Paintress counts down from 34 to 33, and an expedition of brave and slightly magic thirtysomethings from the dwindling population sets out, as they do every year, to sail across to the Paintress’s continent and try to kill her and stop the cycle. I was sad to leave this opening area, because the city was so beautiful, and everyone was impeccably dressed. Also, nothing was trying to kill me every few minutes.The most French thing you’ll ever play … Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photograph: Sandfall InteractiveMany expeditions have gone before. You find their grisly remnants all over the place as you explore, their recorded diaries left to help whoever comes next. You start off in a kind of ravaged Paris, the Eiffel Tower distorting towards a distant horizon like a Dalí painting. The game looks like a waltz through a distinguished art museum that’s about to get sucked into a black hole. One early area of the continent is a waterless ocean, the wrecked vessel of one expedition wrapped around a dead leviathan of a sea creature, fronts of seaweed waving in the nonexistent currents. It’s beautiful but extremely dangerous: you quickly have to get the hang of a pretty complicated combat system to survive even the first few boss fights.Clair Obscur’s fighting is inspired by classic and modern Japanese RPGs: rhythmic and flashy, it lets you supercharge a fireball or dodge the fist of a stone automaton with a well-timed button press. Combining your unusually distinctive characters’ abilities is the key. One of them wields a rapier and changes stance every attack, another attacks with an impenetrable system of sun and moon tarot cards, a third mostly with a gun and a sword. If this all sounds needlessly extravagant, it is – and I love it. The combat menus are a tinkerer’s dream, letting you pore over and combine characters’ esoteric powers and skills to create interesting combo attacks.What I enjoy most about this game is that it doesn’t look like everything else or, indeed, anything else. The majority of games riff on the same few predictable references: Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel. Instead it draws from completely different aesthetic and thematic sources; this is a baroque fantasy that tells a story about fatalism and love and death and legacy, a European-style tale with Japanese-style action and flair. It plays very differently, but its distinctiveness and determination to actually say something with its story reminds me of last year’s excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio.Clair Obscur also illustrates just how good game development tools are now: if you’re wondering how a smallish team could create something that looks this high-end, that’s a large part of the answer. This makes me feel pretty optimistic about the future of this middle sector of game development, in between blockbuster and indie. In the 00s and 2010s, that was where many of the most interesting games could be found. I can imagine several large publishers deeming this game simply too French to be marketable, but Sandfall was able to make it anyway. Expedition 33 is an encouraging commercial success that will be cited all year as a counternarrative to the games industry’s prevailing doomsaying, but it’s a creative success, too.What to playA thrill a minute … Doom: The Dark Ages. Photograph: BethesdaA new Doom game is out very shortly and reviews suggest that it is a glorious heavy-metal orgy of violence. It has you massacring hordes of gross demons at once, impaling them with spikes, shredding them with a chainsaw-shield, even punching gigantic hellspawn from within a giant robot or shooting at them from the back of a mecha-dragon. Doom: The Dark Ages is slower than the other modern games in the series, with more up-close combat anda vaguely medieval flavour to its aesthetic, but it’s still thrill-a-minute.Available on: Xbox, PS5, PC
    Estimated playtime: What to readChaos machine … Grand Theft Auto VI. Photograph: Rockstar Games

    Grand Theft Auto VI, which is delayed until next May, left a crater in the 2025 release schedule that other game companies are scrambling to fill, reports Bloomberg. Expect some serious rescheduling to be going on behind the scenes before the summer’s glut of game announcements.

    The Strong National Museum of Play in the US has inducted four new games into its Hall of Fame: Defender, GoldenEye 007, Quake and theequally deserving Tamagotchi. They beat contenders from Age of Empires to Angry Birds.

    After last week’s industry media drama, long-established podcast-video collective Giant Bomb has bought itself out and gone independent, joining a growing stable of worker-owned and reader-supported games outlets.
    skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhat to clickQuestion Block‘Read a book, rube’ … Bioshock Infinite’s Elizabeth. Photograph: 2K GamesReader Travis sent in this week’s question:“I’m planning to start a book club-style video game club. Two questions: what should I call it and what game would you love to share and discuss in such a setting?”This is an excellent idea, and you’ve reminded me that I tried to do something like this a million years ago as a podcast on IGN, but I cannot for the life of me remember what we called it. Press Pause? Point? LFG? I would pick shorter games for a book club-style group, and I’d want ones that leave room for people’s personal histories to inform how they respond to it. I’d love to hear other people talk about Neva’s environmentalist and parental themes, or any Life Is Strange game’s mix of emerging-adulthood drama and quasi-successful supernatural storytelling, or even a game like While Waiting, what it made them think about. That would surely be more interesting than simply arguing about whether the latest Assassin’s Creed is any good.I asked my partner what he’d call a video game book club, and he suggested Text Adventure, which is annoyingly better than anything I can think of. My pal Tom suggested Pile of Shame, One More Go and Shared Worlds. Readers: can you think of any more?If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.
    #baroque #breakout #hit #clair #obscur
    Baroque breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is unlike any game you’ve played before
    Much has been made of the fact that the year’s most recent breakout hit, an idiosyncratic role-playing game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a small team.. It’s a tempting narrative in this age of blockbuster mega-flops, live-service games and eye-watering budgets: scrappy team makes a lengthy, unusual and beautiful thing, sells it for £40, and everybody wins. But it’s not quite accurate.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Sandfall Interactive, the game’s French developer, comprises around 30 people, but as Rock Paper Shotgun points out, there are many more listed in the game’s credits – from a Korean animation team to the outsourced quality assurance testers, and the localisation and performance staff who give the game and its story heft and emotional believability.Compared to the enormous teams who make the Final Fantasy games – a clear inspiration for Sandfall – Clair Obscur’s team is minuscule. The more interesting achievement isn’t that a small team has made a successful game – it’s that a small team has made the most extravagantly French thing any of us will ever play. Much to my partner’s annoyance, I’ve set the voice language to French with English subtitles, just to enhance the immersion.In Clair Obscur’s belle époque-inspired world, a sinister entity called the Paintress daubs a number on a distant totem every year, descending from 100 – and every person of that age dissolves heartbreakingly into petals and dust, leaving behind devastated partners and orphaned children.The game starts as the Paintress counts down from 34 to 33, and an expedition of brave and slightly magic thirtysomethings from the dwindling population sets out, as they do every year, to sail across to the Paintress’s continent and try to kill her and stop the cycle. I was sad to leave this opening area, because the city was so beautiful, and everyone was impeccably dressed. Also, nothing was trying to kill me every few minutes.The most French thing you’ll ever play … Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photograph: Sandfall InteractiveMany expeditions have gone before. You find their grisly remnants all over the place as you explore, their recorded diaries left to help whoever comes next. You start off in a kind of ravaged Paris, the Eiffel Tower distorting towards a distant horizon like a Dalí painting. The game looks like a waltz through a distinguished art museum that’s about to get sucked into a black hole. One early area of the continent is a waterless ocean, the wrecked vessel of one expedition wrapped around a dead leviathan of a sea creature, fronts of seaweed waving in the nonexistent currents. It’s beautiful but extremely dangerous: you quickly have to get the hang of a pretty complicated combat system to survive even the first few boss fights.Clair Obscur’s fighting is inspired by classic and modern Japanese RPGs: rhythmic and flashy, it lets you supercharge a fireball or dodge the fist of a stone automaton with a well-timed button press. Combining your unusually distinctive characters’ abilities is the key. One of them wields a rapier and changes stance every attack, another attacks with an impenetrable system of sun and moon tarot cards, a third mostly with a gun and a sword. If this all sounds needlessly extravagant, it is – and I love it. The combat menus are a tinkerer’s dream, letting you pore over and combine characters’ esoteric powers and skills to create interesting combo attacks.What I enjoy most about this game is that it doesn’t look like everything else or, indeed, anything else. The majority of games riff on the same few predictable references: Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel. Instead it draws from completely different aesthetic and thematic sources; this is a baroque fantasy that tells a story about fatalism and love and death and legacy, a European-style tale with Japanese-style action and flair. It plays very differently, but its distinctiveness and determination to actually say something with its story reminds me of last year’s excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio.Clair Obscur also illustrates just how good game development tools are now: if you’re wondering how a smallish team could create something that looks this high-end, that’s a large part of the answer. This makes me feel pretty optimistic about the future of this middle sector of game development, in between blockbuster and indie. In the 00s and 2010s, that was where many of the most interesting games could be found. I can imagine several large publishers deeming this game simply too French to be marketable, but Sandfall was able to make it anyway. Expedition 33 is an encouraging commercial success that will be cited all year as a counternarrative to the games industry’s prevailing doomsaying, but it’s a creative success, too.What to playA thrill a minute … Doom: The Dark Ages. Photograph: BethesdaA new Doom game is out very shortly and reviews suggest that it is a glorious heavy-metal orgy of violence. It has you massacring hordes of gross demons at once, impaling them with spikes, shredding them with a chainsaw-shield, even punching gigantic hellspawn from within a giant robot or shooting at them from the back of a mecha-dragon. Doom: The Dark Ages is slower than the other modern games in the series, with more up-close combat anda vaguely medieval flavour to its aesthetic, but it’s still thrill-a-minute.Available on: Xbox, PS5, PC Estimated playtime: What to readChaos machine … Grand Theft Auto VI. Photograph: Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto VI, which is delayed until next May, left a crater in the 2025 release schedule that other game companies are scrambling to fill, reports Bloomberg. Expect some serious rescheduling to be going on behind the scenes before the summer’s glut of game announcements. The Strong National Museum of Play in the US has inducted four new games into its Hall of Fame: Defender, GoldenEye 007, Quake and theequally deserving Tamagotchi. They beat contenders from Age of Empires to Angry Birds. After last week’s industry media drama, long-established podcast-video collective Giant Bomb has bought itself out and gone independent, joining a growing stable of worker-owned and reader-supported games outlets. skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhat to clickQuestion Block‘Read a book, rube’ … Bioshock Infinite’s Elizabeth. Photograph: 2K GamesReader Travis sent in this week’s question:“I’m planning to start a book club-style video game club. Two questions: what should I call it and what game would you love to share and discuss in such a setting?”This is an excellent idea, and you’ve reminded me that I tried to do something like this a million years ago as a podcast on IGN, but I cannot for the life of me remember what we called it. Press Pause? Point? LFG? I would pick shorter games for a book club-style group, and I’d want ones that leave room for people’s personal histories to inform how they respond to it. I’d love to hear other people talk about Neva’s environmentalist and parental themes, or any Life Is Strange game’s mix of emerging-adulthood drama and quasi-successful supernatural storytelling, or even a game like While Waiting, what it made them think about. That would surely be more interesting than simply arguing about whether the latest Assassin’s Creed is any good.I asked my partner what he’d call a video game book club, and he suggested Text Adventure, which is annoyingly better than anything I can think of. My pal Tom suggested Pile of Shame, One More Go and Shared Worlds. Readers: can you think of any more?If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com. #baroque #breakout #hit #clair #obscur
    WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM
    Baroque breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is unlike any game you’ve played before
    Much has been made of the fact that the year’s most recent breakout hit, an idiosyncratic role-playing game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a small team. (It has just sold its two-millionth copy). It’s a tempting narrative in this age of blockbuster mega-flops, live-service games and eye-watering budgets: scrappy team makes a lengthy, unusual and beautiful thing, sells it for £40, and everybody wins. But it’s not quite accurate.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.Sandfall Interactive, the game’s French developer, comprises around 30 people, but as Rock Paper Shotgun points out, there are many more listed in the game’s credits – from a Korean animation team to the outsourced quality assurance testers, and the localisation and performance staff who give the game and its story heft and emotional believability.Compared to the enormous teams who make the Final Fantasy games – a clear inspiration for Sandfall – Clair Obscur’s team is minuscule. The more interesting achievement isn’t that a small team has made a successful game – it’s that a small team has made the most extravagantly French thing any of us will ever play. Much to my partner’s annoyance, I’ve set the voice language to French with English subtitles, just to enhance the immersion.In Clair Obscur’s belle époque-inspired world, a sinister entity called the Paintress daubs a number on a distant totem every year, descending from 100 – and every person of that age dissolves heartbreakingly into petals and dust, leaving behind devastated partners and orphaned children. (This and Neva are the only games in recent memory to make me shed a tear at their beginning.) The game starts as the Paintress counts down from 34 to 33, and an expedition of brave and slightly magic thirtysomethings from the dwindling population sets out, as they do every year, to sail across to the Paintress’s continent and try to kill her and stop the cycle. I was sad to leave this opening area, because the city was so beautiful, and everyone was impeccably dressed. Also, nothing was trying to kill me every few minutes.The most French thing you’ll ever play … Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photograph: Sandfall InteractiveMany expeditions have gone before. You find their grisly remnants all over the place as you explore, their recorded diaries left to help whoever comes next. You start off in a kind of ravaged Paris, the Eiffel Tower distorting towards a distant horizon like a Dalí painting. The game looks like a waltz through a distinguished art museum that’s about to get sucked into a black hole. One early area of the continent is a waterless ocean, the wrecked vessel of one expedition wrapped around a dead leviathan of a sea creature, fronts of seaweed waving in the nonexistent currents. It’s beautiful but extremely dangerous: you quickly have to get the hang of a pretty complicated combat system to survive even the first few boss fights.Clair Obscur’s fighting is inspired by classic and modern Japanese RPGs: rhythmic and flashy, it lets you supercharge a fireball or dodge the fist of a stone automaton with a well-timed button press. Combining your unusually distinctive characters’ abilities is the key. One of them wields a rapier and changes stance every attack, another attacks with an impenetrable system of sun and moon tarot cards, a third mostly with a gun and a sword. If this all sounds needlessly extravagant, it is – and I love it. The combat menus are a tinkerer’s dream, letting you pore over and combine characters’ esoteric powers and skills to create interesting combo attacks.What I enjoy most about this game is that it doesn’t look like everything else or, indeed, anything else. The majority of games riff on the same few predictable references: Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel. Instead it draws from completely different aesthetic and thematic sources; this is a baroque fantasy that tells a story about fatalism and love and death and legacy, a European-style tale with Japanese-style action and flair. It plays very differently, but its distinctiveness and determination to actually say something with its story reminds me of last year’s excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio. (There is a strong correlation between intellectually ambitious RPGs and baffling titles, it seems.)Clair Obscur also illustrates just how good game development tools are now: if you’re wondering how a smallish team could create something that looks this high-end, that’s a large part of the answer. This makes me feel pretty optimistic about the future of this middle sector of game development, in between blockbuster and indie. In the 00s and 2010s, that was where many of the most interesting games could be found. I can imagine several large publishers deeming this game simply too French to be marketable, but Sandfall was able to make it anyway. Expedition 33 is an encouraging commercial success that will be cited all year as a counternarrative to the games industry’s prevailing doomsaying, but it’s a creative success, too.What to playA thrill a minute … Doom: The Dark Ages. Photograph: BethesdaA new Doom game is out very shortly and reviews suggest that it is a glorious heavy-metal orgy of violence. It has you massacring hordes of gross demons at once, impaling them with spikes, shredding them with a chainsaw-shield, even punching gigantic hellspawn from within a giant robot or shooting at them from the back of a mecha-dragon. Doom: The Dark Ages is slower than the other modern games in the series, with more up-close combat and (as the title suggests) a vaguely medieval flavour to its aesthetic, but it’s still thrill-a-minute.Available on: Xbox, PS5, PC Estimated playtime: What to readChaos machine … Grand Theft Auto VI. Photograph: Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto VI, which is delayed until next May, left a crater in the 2025 release schedule that other game companies are scrambling to fill, reports Bloomberg (via Kotaku). Expect some serious rescheduling to be going on behind the scenes before the summer’s glut of game announcements. The Strong National Museum of Play in the US has inducted four new games into its Hall of Fame: Defender, GoldenEye 007, Quake and the (IMO) equally deserving Tamagotchi. They beat contenders from Age of Empires to Angry Birds. After last week’s industry media drama, long-established podcast-video collective Giant Bomb has bought itself out and gone independent, joining a growing stable of worker-owned and reader-supported games outlets. skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Pushing ButtonsFree weekly newsletterKeza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gamingPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhat to clickQuestion Block‘Read a book, rube’ … Bioshock Infinite’s Elizabeth. Photograph: 2K GamesReader Travis sent in this week’s question:“I’m planning to start a book club-style video game club. Two questions: what should I call it and what game would you love to share and discuss in such a setting?”This is an excellent idea, and you’ve reminded me that I tried to do something like this a million years ago as a podcast on IGN, but I cannot for the life of me remember what we called it. Press Pause? Save Point? LFG? I would pick shorter games for a book club-style group (so that everyone could actually play them through), and I’d want ones that leave room for people’s personal histories to inform how they respond to it. I’d love to hear other people talk about Neva’s environmentalist and parental themes, or any Life Is Strange game’s mix of emerging-adulthood drama and quasi-successful supernatural storytelling, or even a game like While Waiting, what it made them think about. That would surely be more interesting than simply arguing about whether the latest Assassin’s Creed is any good.I asked my partner what he’d call a video game book club, and he suggested Text Adventure, which is annoyingly better than anything I can think of. My pal Tom suggested Pile of Shame, One More Go and Shared Worlds. Readers: can you think of any more?If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.
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