Fuel Your Inspiration
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
March 2026
Leading by example
A year later, an eloquent testimony and victory is still pure inspiration
Listen again to the testimony of the young Solomon Islands law student Cynthia Houniuhi a year ago at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. She spoke truth to power, on behalf of her homeland and culture and the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC), about the existential threat of climate change to her island and future generations. The outcome: victory! The ICJ’s advisory landmark opinion last July gave the Pacific and all vulnerable communities a legal mechanism to hold states accountable and to demand climate action. PISFCC received the United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth 2025 Award. Her words are a template for others affected by climate change and rising sea levels. How did she and her colleagues do it? Read Cynthia’s personal story.
Watch this space: The First International Conference on the
Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, on 28-29 April
Many governments around the world currently have plans to produce 120% more fossil fuels by 2030. This only benefits fossil fuel industries; the ones who are most responsible for global warming, the ones who have knowingly created the climate crisis for half a century, the ones solely focused on achieving record profits. The unacceptable failures at COP30 and previous global meetings to halt fossil fuel extraction have compelled the governments of The Netherlands and Colombia to establish the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels to be held on 28-29 April, 2026 in Santa Marta, Colombia. This is hope for our future.
Countries participating in the international cooperation to phase out fossil fuels are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Nepal, Netherlands, Panama, Spain, Slovenia, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.
Deciding that profit is more important
than a fragile ecology
Approximately 50 metric tons of trash, including tents, food containers, oxygen tanks, frozen human waste, and–gulp!--200 bodies of deceased mountaineers litter Mount Everest. Climate warming is melting glaciers, revealing solutions to decades to centuries-old mysteries such as the fate of lost climbers.
Now, in a move that could exacerbate the already hideous trash crisis and seems to throw ecological caution to the wind, India’s Uttarakhand state has decided to waive fees for mountaineers who want to scale any of the 83 snow-covered Himalayan peaks located in Garhwal and Kumaon. The highest peak stands at 7756 meters (23268 feet). The former fees covered trail management, camping fees, and environmental levies. The claim is that fee-free trekking will boost international tourism, create jobs for locals, and encourage youth to take up mountaineering. What do you think? Should we be visiting the planet at 8500 meters and leaving it a garbage dump because we can’t physically or ethically deal with it?
30 x 30 - The race to protect nature
The High Ambition Coalition is a group of countries within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) committed to advancing the protection of vital ecosystems and biodiversity on Earth. Its goal is 30 x 30: to achieve the protection of 30% of land and 30% of water by 2030, a key target of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Its website is a resource of science and reports, toolkits, and a small grant fund called the Rapid Deployment Mechanism (RDM) to help developing countries advance their 30 x 30 goals. Maybe your country qualifies for a grant!
The Stop Data Centers Campaign–
We’re only at the beginning
As artificial intelligence increasingly infiltrates our lives, there’s a data center boom. These data centers gobble up electricity and monstrous amounts of water, the same water and electricity that communities use. Some usurp drinking water resources. Others could be built on sensitive ecological lands such as wetlands. Data center companies often cite “new jobs” and “economic growth” as benefits for towns, and not their water and electricity needs, but under scrutiny, it’s the corporations who own the data centers who benefit. Because data centers are such big energy consumers, they get discounted rates from utilities. And we consumers are paying ever more for our utilities. If you do the math, consumers are paying for the buildout of water and electricity utilities’ infrastructure, meaning that consumers are actually subsidizing the data centers and their insatiable thirst for profit. As data centers go up worldwide, local residents are suffering water shortages and electrical blackouts.
Now citizens in cities, towns, villages, and the countryside are fighting back. They’re rejecting data center plans and they are winning their legal cases. Get inspired; your town could do this, too. Algorithm Watch offers a guide for Europeans to resist data centers. In the US, the non-profit Food & Water Watch (F&WW) has launched a campaign to Stop Data Centers Now. Listen to their Stop Data Centers Now webinar for inspiration and campaign points.