In the event that a developer proposes installing a solar facility near you, how do you protect your community from toxic fire hazards, high water use, groundwater contamination and end-of-life e-waste? First, get informed. Find resources at Katie Singer’s newest reports:  www.OurWeb.tech/letter-45 and www.OurWeb.tech/letter-43.

In Santa Fe County New Mexico, AES India has proposed the Rancho Viejo Solar project, an 800 square-acre facility with battery electric storage off Hwy 14. (For more info about this project, go to New Mexico Responsible Solar. Write info@newmexicoresponsiblesolar.com.)

If you want to sway public opinion or influence policymakers, check out 70 Ads to Change the World, Jerry Mander’s illustrated memoir of social change. Just released from Synergetic Press, the book presents informative ads like the ones Mander wrote in 1966, which saved the Grand Canyon from becoming two dams. Mander discusses what did and did not work in the ads—about computers in schools, mining, guns, whales, reproductive rights and more. I love this book! To attend City Lights’ October 19, 6pm PST celebration of 70 Ads, register at https://citylights.com/events/jerry-mander-and-friends/

Environmental Health just published a paper from the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (ICBE-EMF). Chaired by Dr. Ronald Melnick and directed by Elizabeth Kelly, the Commission challenges wireless radiation safety limits and calls for a moratorium on further rollout of 5G. For more info, visit https://icbe-emf.org/activities/ and  https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-022-00900-9

Katie Singer inches closer to finishing her book about technology’s impacts on nature. The book needs funding for rights to reprint rare (expensive) images of miners, smelters and e-waste dumps. The newsletter now requires several thousand dollars/year for web maintenance and security. Please contribute!