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Turning closed coal mines into solar farms

Converting abandoned or soon-to-close coal mines into solar farms could provide enough power to meet the demands of a country the size of Germany, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis. 

Researchers from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) have identified 312 surface coal mines that have been shut since 2020, sprawling over 2,089 square kilometres (km²). 

Its Global Coal Mine Tracker (GCMT) finds that a further 3,731 km² of mine land is set to be abandoned by operators before the end of 2030 as reserves are run down. 

In total, that means an estimated 446 coal mines and 5,820 km² of abandoned land that could be repurposed for solar projects and generate nearly 300 GW of renewable energy. That’s a huge amount - equivalent to around 15 per cent of globally installed solar capacity today.

Given the global goal of tripling renewables capacity by 2030, derelict coal mines present a sizable opportunity for the clean energy transition. But the benefits don’t stop there.

“Acquiring land for global renewable energy targets has been rife with conflicts among stakeholders and decision-makers,” acknowledges Hailey Deres, researcher at GEM. Developers are busy exploring overlooked sites for panels - from roadsides to reservoirs and railway tracks - and old coal mines are a particularly fitting location.

“So repurposing degraded lands could provide salient new benefits to former coal communities across the planet,” she continues.

“Repurposing mines for solar development offers a rare chance to bring together land restoration, local job creation, and clean energy deployment in a single strategy,” adds Wu. 

“With the right choices, the same ground that powered the industrial era can help power the climate solutions we now urgently need.”

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So the question becomes: what can be done? First, we must stop treating this as a matter of messaging or fact correction. MAGA is not a misunderstanding. It is a counternarrative. And counternarratives are not defeated by evidence—they’re displaced by more compelling visions. Democracy’s defenders must offer something better than a return to normal. We must offer belonging. Purpose. A story of inclusion that doesn’t require someone else’s exclusion. One that says: you matter, your town matters, and your voice counts. Second, we must reinvest in the civic infrastructure that makes pluralism possible. That means public schools not as test-prep factories but civic institutions. Local journalism, libraries, youth centers—spaces where strangers become neighbors. Democracy doesn’t self-repair. It must be rehearsed, cared for, renewed. Third, we must hold accountable those who profit from decay. MAGA leaders aren’t revolutionaries. They are opportunists in patriotic drag. They rage against elites while cashing donor checks, dodge taxes while preaching sacrifice, and stoke chaos to consolidate control. They flourish not despite neoliberal disinvestment, but because of it—converting economic betrayal into moral grievance. Fourth, we must resist the temptation to mimic their tactics. Authoritarian movements thrive on moral erosion. They want us to become cynical, to abandon the very norms we claim to defend. That means we must uphold civil liberties even for those who oppose us, reject caricature even when used against us, and protect the rule of law especially when it’s inconvenient. The goal isn’t just to win power. It’s to preserve the conditions under which power remains contestable. Finally, we must think long-term. This is not a season. It is a generational struggle. MAGA is not an anomaly—it’s a symptom of deeper failures: inequality, isolation, disinvestment, the corrosion of civic trust. We are confronting not just a man or a movement, but the vacuum they’ve filled. The space left behind when democracy was reduced to transactions and identity to resentment. Understanding MAGA is not about sympathy. It’s about strategy. And strategy begins by recognizing that we are not merely defending norms or countering lies—we are contesting meaning itself. The fight ahead is not only for the machinery of government. It is for the moral imagination of what government is for—and who gets to belong in its promises.

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LOVE this

[somethingtrueandbeautiful]

☀️ Summer 2025 🥵

It's 95° right now in Michigan.

[somethingtrueandbeautiful]

Since ICE has no restrictions on their ability to disappear, abduct, torture, and murder folks, the people of this country (no human is illegal, this means fucking all the people of this country) should similarly remove all restraint in confronting ICE against to whatever level of protest, hindrance, or outright resistance they are comfortable with. Though this country has committed a multitude of evils within and without its borders, a secret police with completely unchecked power goes against every idea of freedom in every political document of America (again, including the really shitty documents, hell, including parts of the Patriot Act probably). Anyhow, stay strapped (in the strap-on sense of course, violence* is wrong).

*If you are oppressed, violence is perfectly fine. Just try not to start a completely random terror bombing campaign because that shit is kinda douchy.

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[somethingtrueandbeautiful]

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T.A.C.O.

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Doing Something

The world feels like it's falling apart faster every day.

Instead of despairing, we are trying to put our thoughts and feelings into positive action.

Something True and Beautiful was created to put energy into the things that we are FOR, rather than being defined by and adding energy, even negative energy, to the things we are against.

The world is dark enough — we want to be a part of lighting the way towards a brighter future.

https://www.somethingtrueandbeautiful.com