Puerto Rico’s Water Service Problems: Drought, Mismanagement, Aging Infrastructure, and Lack of Investment are the Drivers

     Puerto Rico has a problem maintaining adequate water service for its citizens. Mandatory water rationing schedules have been implemented in several parts of the U.S. territory. Drought, mismanagement, aging Infrastructure, and lack of Investment are all implicated in the water shortage. Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón declared a state of emergency on July 31 due to the drought. She said that it’s unknown how long the rationing measures will last. She also noted that it was unexpected. She also announced that the US Department of Agriculture approved a drought disaster declaration on the island, which allows farmers and agricultural producers in 26 municipalities to access emergency loans. Most of the island is experiencing moderate to extreme drought.

“When you have a drought colliding with an aging infrastructure, that’s more than a drought. That’s a humanitarian crisis, and it’s a crisis which is deep,” said Northeastern University chemistry professor Eugene Smotkin, who lives in Old San Juan with his wife. “It’s not a drought story.”

     One of the most significant factors in Puerto Rico’s current water problems has been ruptures in its Super-aqueduct, a 72-inch pipeline that carries water along a 50-mile route along the territory’s populated northern coast area that includes the capital, San Juan. The super-aqueduct, which entered service in 2000, has a capacity of 75 million gallons of water per day.

     According to CNN:

“Carlos Pesquera, a civil engineer and former secretary of transportation and head of public works who was appointed by the governor as an advisor on the water crisis, said the drought “is the immediate trigger” of the current emergency, “but it does not fully explain the vulnerability” of the water system.

“Puerto Rico has aging infrastructure, significant water losses and areas where greater redundancy and resilience are needed,” Pesquera, a member of the pro-statehood governing party, told CNN via email.

     As shown below in a 2019 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, infrastructure investment on the island has not kept pace with GDP growth.

     That 2019 report noted:

“Reactive maintenance of public water systems occurs too frequently and could be avoided with better asset management programs that rehabilitate and replace infrastructure before failures occur.”

     The island generally has adequate rainfall, but seasonal droughts are common. Problems identified include sedimentation in water reservoirs. Dredging might be needed in those reservoirs. New reservoirs should be built to capture more of the island’s runoff. The report also recommended other measures, including reducing unaccounted water loss through pipe leaks and tank overflows to lower the 42% loss rate, installing emergency electric energy generators at all water pumping stations, wells, and filtration plants, and improving meters at treatment plants and wells.

     Some regions have been having water availability issues for years, and some residents note no water availability on over half of the days in a year in recent years.

“The water problem in the San Juan area has been with us for years,” Rodriguez said. “Every year it gets worse. It’s draining, a constant state of worry. It is no way to live.”

     Reliance on a single piece of infrastructure, the super-aqueduct, has proved to be problematic, as CNN notes:

“After more than a quarter century of service, the Superaqueduct’s recent breaks exposed a key weakness in Puerto Rico’s water system: The heavy reliance on a single, long-distance transmission line without an equivalent backup during a major interruption requires sustained attention and investment, according to Pesquera.”

“The Superaqueduct was originally designed as a complimentary water source. Its purpose was to reinforce existing systems and make the metropolitan (San Juan) network stronger, not to replace traditional water sources,” he wrote in his report.

     Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, and the government’s financial problems have exacerbated the issue. The lack of water has caused hardship for many families. A citizen who collects and delivers water for those in dire need noted:

“I find many older adults alone in subhuman conditions with no one to care for them,” she lamented, her voice fading.

“Whenever we have water, I fill every bottle and bucket I can find. I’ve never had to live like this – not even after the worst storms,” Pica Quiñones said.

 

 

References:

 

In Puerto Rico, even when it doesn’t rain, it pours. Ray Sanchez and Isabel Rosales. CNN. August 28, 2026. Inside Puerto Rico’s worsening water emergency | CNN

Puerto Rico’s North Coast Aqueduct interconnections. Natural Hazards Mission Area 2021 (approx.). U.S. Geological Survey. Puerto Rico’s North Coast Aqueduct interconnections | U.S. Geological Survey

2019 ASCE Report Card for Puerto Rico’s Infrastructure. American Society of Civil Engineers. November 2019. 2019-Puerto-Rico-Report-Card-Final.pdf

 

 

 

Status vs. Wealth: Psychologist Argues That Humans Prefer Status Over Wealth; However, Many of Us Are Not Interested in Status, and Wealth Creation Is Not Easy

    Psychologist Adam Omary, of the Cato Institute, argues that humans prefer status, or rank, over wealth, due in part to it being a zero-sum idea. Status is relative. It is ranked into a hierarchy from low to high. Wealth is different. It can be created with innovation, insight, investment, and technology. Thus, as he notes, rank is a zero-sum idea since if your rank goes up, someone else’s likely goes down and vice versa.

     Omary considers Elon Musk’s brief stint as a trillionaire. His net worth later dropped to $850 billion, but no one complained about the loss of wealth on the market when SpaceX’s stock dropped, as they did when it grew, and Musk’s fortune grew with it. I’m not sure that is a very good argument, but I think his point is that wealth should be celebrated rather than denigrating its uneven distribution, known as inequality, especially in cases where those at the bottom are benefiting as well.

“Economists can explain the difference between income and equity, paper wealth and spendable cash. But the real dispute is psychological. Humans dislike inequality even when a rising tide lifts all boats. If every centibillionaire donated over 99 percent of their net worth to charity and kept a single billion, people would still lament that billionaires exist.”

     He cites several social psychology experiments that strongly suggest that people prefer status over wealth.

“Social psychology experiments consistently show that people care more about rank than wealth. Many will take a smaller income if it places them above their neighbors over a larger one that places them below, and their health and happiness track relative standing more than absolute income.”

     I’m thinking that while status/rank is zero-sum, the pool can grow or shrink, which changes some of the relationships. If one is number one in a pool of 10 people and drops to number 11 in a pool of 100 people, that person’s status dropped due to the change in pool size. While that doesn’t change the conclusions, it means that pool size is a factor to be considered.

     When I was younger and trying to develop my career, I suppose I did care more about status, sometimes seeking more recognition for my work and capabilities. But now that I am older and no longer traditionally employed, I cannot care less about status, as long as I have enough wealth to allow me to live a fairly comfortable life. Thus, for me at this stage of my life, wealth is more important than status.

     He argues that envying that status of another has evolutionary implications:

“Envy is not a free-floating vice. It is a system for detecting consequential differences in rank and resources. Humans evolved in groups that were both cooperative and competitive. Food sharing and reciprocal exchange produced mutual gains, but access to land, allies, and mates was limited, and a rival’s rise could shrink one’s own share. Monitoring who had more was adaptive.”

     He seems to suggest that Musk’s excessive wealth should be celebrated rather than denigrated. However, I would counter that much of that denigration has to do with our perceptions of fairness. He pays a much lower effective tax rate than we do. He can manipulate how he receives and stores his wealth, through stock, stock options, stock-backed investments, etc., which give him tax advantages relative to us and options that we simply do not have access to.

     Omary concludes:

“Zero-sum belief also converts personal comparison into coalitional morality. A man who resents a richer neighbor feels small. A man who resents a class of exploiters feels righteous. The English writer George Orwell noticed the pattern: socialism is often motivated more by hatred of the rich than by love of the poor.”

“Musk may regain his fourth comma or shed another few hundred billion. His rank can swing violently without any matching change in everyone else’s circumstances. That is why the gains produce outrage and the losses silence. The number is being read as a status score.”

     I found the Orwell quote to be interesting and likely spot on. The real problem is not inequality but bringing the poor up to standard. If everyone were wealthy enough to survive comfortably, I would have little to no care about the super-wealthy. Is Musk simply creating wealth for himself and his investors that would never be there if he wasn’t? Maybe, but we still see it as excess, since that wealth is not being distributed to those who need it. I would argue that while wealth is not strictly zero-sum, it does have characteristics of being zero-sum or nearly so, since it is not easy to create and there does not seem to be enough to go around.  

     Omary's summary is below:

     Are we really seeing productive success as exploitation? Perhaps, but if so, it is not just exploitation by one human, but exploitation by the system itself, which does not tax the super-wealthy enough. 

     I have been living comfortably over the past year or so on less than a thousand dollars per month. Thus, I would ask, who the hell really needs or even can use a billion dollars, let alone a trillion? I would also argue that the outrage is not strictly about status but about fairness and the absurdity of those with such massive wealth. In fact, for many of us, it is indeed more about fairness than status. 

 

  

 

References:

 

Why Humans Care More About Rank Than Riches: Wealth Isn't Zero-Sum. Status Is. Adam Omary. HumanProgress.org. August 21, 2026. Why Humans Care More About Rank Than Riches - Human Progress

Fly Ash-Based Proppants for Hydraulic Fracturing: Studies, Cases, Products, Capabilities, and Limitations

     Fly ash, or coal ash, is a waste product left over after the combustion of coal in power plants. It is typically stored in very large slurry ponds. In order to get the fly ash out for use, it needs to be dredged out of those ponds and conditioned for use. A device is shown below that classifies and thickens the ash. Before use, it also needs some separation into ideal particle sizes.  

     The use of fly ash as a proppant component began to be explored in earnest in the 2010s. I remember hearing a talk, I believe in 2014, that mentioned it as a possibility. According to a slide presentation at the Kentucky Oil & Gas Association (KOGA) meeting in 2024, the company Enhanced Solution Services (ESS), formerly Metis, began field trials in 2017 with fly-ash-based proppants. The presentation explores fly ash suitability as a standalone proppant. Some fly ash properties are given below. Particle sizes are up to five times smaller than frac sand. Proppants compress when induced fractures close, which reduces flow. If they crush, that creates finer particles which are much more likely to impede flow. Fly ash has good crush resistance but inadequate compressive strength, which limits its applicability.

 

     The fly ash is first separated into different particle sizes.

     The paper touts a hydraulic fracturing method known as Dar-Stim, which utilizes fly ash as a proppant. It has been tested for refracs of marginal wells and for stimulating new wells. About 25% of the tests were on horizontal or deviated wells, so most were on vertical wells.

     Fly ash as a proppant has sufficient rounding and sphericity, as well as acceptable crush resistance. It has smooth surfaces and low drag. It has no surface charges. It stays in suspension, which means its use requires much less pumping horsepower than pumping frac sand. However, the particles are much smaller than those of typical frac sand or ceramics.

     Dar-Stim has been tested across multiple formation types. Well production improvement post-frac has been very good. Most of the tests were in wells with pressure below hydrostatic pressure.

     It has a lower carbon footprint, requires fewer site personnel, uses less water, has much greater flowback recovery, and does not use polymer gels.

     A June 2025 study presented at the SPE Europe Energy Conference and Exhibition explored Class F fly ash proppants mixed with volcanic ash. It noted that the lightweight, low-density ash proppant mix with enhanced buoyancy and compressive strength has some advantages over sand. They explored different mix designs and binder-to-water ratios. They concluded that volcanic ash can offer higher strength and better structural integrity than class F fly ash. However, that compressive strength is still well below industry standards. Thus, for now, it is confined to lightweight proppant applications. The abstract is given below.

     A January 2025 paper published in the journal Materials also assessed the compressive strength of fly ash proppants. The study evaluated these proppants under harsh environmental conditions, including high temperature, high pressure, acidic, alkaline, saline, and crude oil environments. Some of these are typical in deep horizontal wells. The different environmental conditions were found to pose little to no difference in the compressive strength of the proppants. However, as the abstract below notes:

“The B20W25 sample demonstrated a compressive strength of 1181.19 psi (8.1 MPa), which, although resilient, remains below industry standards.”

     Unfortunately, this is far below the required minimum of 5000 psi for compressive strength. A typical sand proppant can withstand up to 5800 psi, and a ceramic proppant from 7000 psi to 15,000 psi.

    Below is the mix design, the composite-bound cubic and spherical samples, and the machine used to test compressive strength. I used a machine like this back in the late 80s when I worked for a short time as a concrete inspector in the construction and geotechnical industry. It was fun to smash the concrete cylinders!

     While the compressive strength of fly ash proppants remains far below industry requirements, the use of additives, different binders, and activators could bring it up to those standards.

“When further understanding has been developed, enhancing the fly ash alkaline-activated proppant with additives can be looked at to reach the industry standard. Other binding and activating materials/solutions also need to be investigated besides the alkaline activators. Furthermore, an exploration of varied proppant geometries and utilization techniques could yield significant enhancements in performance across multiple applications. In sum, this study lays a robust foundation for ongoing inquiry and advancement within the realm of proppant technology.”

     They suggest testing different types of fly ash, binders, and activators.

“The first actionable recommendation for future work is to test different types of fly ashes and binders as well as chemically analyzing the raw materials and synthesized products to understand further how a proppant compatible with industry standards can be made from fly ash. Although this study identified certain mechanical limitations, it provides a solid foundation for future investigations aimed at optimizing fly ash proppants. In summary, fly ash holds significant promise as a cost-effective and sustainable proppant material for hydraulic fracturing applications.”

     Superior Energy makes a fly ash proppant called EcoReach, which they describe below:

“EcoReach™ is a next-gen micro proppant sourced from coal combustion byproducts. It’s made up of perfectly spherical particles, over five times smaller than a grain of sand. These microscopic spheres glide without jamming, staying in suspension longer. They travel farther into the microfractures that conventional proppants can't reach. And they do so without damaging the reservoir or the environment, all while cutting operating costs.”   

    For now, fly ash can only be practically used alone in wells that don’t require high compressive strength. However, it can be blended with sand or ceramics, and more experiments with blending and recipes are likely to be developed as testing continues. As a waste product, it is cheaper to obtain than mined sand or manufactured ceramic proppants.  

References:

 

Use of Fly Ash as a Proppant in Fracking of Unconventional Oil & Gas Wells. Thomas Robl, Anne Oberlink, Robert Jewell, University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy and Curtis Wilie, Jim Crenshaw, Enhanced Solutions Services. KOGA Annual Meeting 6/27/2024. Program Briefing

Developing Fly Ash Based Proppants and Evaluating Their Load Bearing Capacity for Hydraulic Fracturing Available to Purchase/ Raz Haydar; Sherif Fakher. Paper presented at the SPE Europe Energy Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, June 2025. Paper Number: SPE-225632-MS. Developing Fly  Ash Based Proppants and Evaluating Their Load Bearing Capacity for Hydraulic Fracturing | SPE Europec featured at EAGE Conference and Exhibition | OnePetro

Ecoreach. Smarter Proppant. Stronger Performance. Superior Energy. Wellsite Solutions. EcoReach™ Micro Proppant | Superior Energy Brands

Investigating and Evaluating Novel Fly Ash-Based Proppant Compressive Strength Under Various Environmental Conditions. Raz Haydar and Sherif Fakher. Materials 2025, 18(2), 399; Published: 16 January 2025. Investigating and Evaluating Novel Fly Ash-Based Proppant Compressive Strength Under Various Environmental Conditions

EcoReach: Smarter Stimulation for Production Enhancement. Superior Energy. EcoReach_Flyer_02.24.26

 

Resignations Rise Due to Forest Carbon Accounting Rule Disagreements about Threats to Scientific Integrity

     Carbon offsetting is way up due to AI data center developers, ie., tech companies, seeking to offset their growing carbon emissions. Debates about accounting for forest carbon storage are pitting scientists against the forest products industry that wants less stringency on their credits.

     Tim Searchinger, the Princeton University scholar serving as the World Resources Institute‘s technical director for land-related issues, recently resigned his position in protest. University of Pennsylvania senior fellow Danny Cullenward stepped down from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Independent Standards Board in June over the same dispute. Searchinger told Bloomberg that he resigned:

“…because developments with the Protocol undermined that integrity in both the content of the rules and the process behind them, and because he was unable to correct them.”

     According to Wood Central, the debate is about how much to attribute to human activity vs. natural activity.

“The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a standard-setter overseen in part by the World Resources Institute, is drafting its first guidance on forest carbon accounting, and the fight centres on two competing approaches to attributing the carbon forests absorb, store, and release. Activity-based accounting separates changes caused by people from those driven by natural processes, while the rival managed land proxy treats every change on managed forest land as human-caused.”

     Opponents say there is double counting when natural carbon removal is counted and credited as human-caused removal.

“Bloomberg found most scientists and non-governmental organisations either backed activity-based accounting or criticised the proxy, with a smaller band of scientists writing in favour alongside industry professionals.”

     The issue is whether or not this is greenwashing, or more accurately, how much greenwashing will be accepted.

     Microsoft is one of the biggest buyers of carbon offsets and one of the biggest buyers of forest carbon offsets.

“Microsoft, one of the world’s biggest buyers of wood-linked carbon removal, has already agreed to buy more than 4.8 million tonnes of credits from improved forest management across American forestland in five states. Surging AI emissions are testing the tech giant’s pledge to become carbon negative by 2030.”

     An article about this in The Cool Down states that the problem is simply greenwashing, whether a company can claim sustainability branding without really adding much real carbon storage benefit. They explain the debate between activity-based accounting and managed land proxy as follows:

“Activity-based accounting tries to sort out which carbon changes come from human actions and which stem from natural processes. Managed land proxy, by contrast, counts every carbon change on managed forest land as human-caused.”

     Choosing the managed land proxy method means that corporate disclosures will be distorted and less scientifically accurate.  

     The Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards board has yet to make a decision and will accept comments through February 2027, before making a decision. At present, either accounting method may be used as long as the method used is disclosed.

     There is also the possibility of using a hybrid model, the “managed land proxy plus” model, which is safeguarded against being exploited irresponsibly. However, several scientists believe that it is not enough and there will still be inaccuracies in the real amount of carbon stored by the corporate interests, akin to greenwashing.

“Vaughan Andrews, Weyerhaeuser's senior program manager for sustainability, helped develop a revised version he called "managed land proxy plus" that includes safeguards so it is "applied responsibly." It's a "solution that can be implemented at scale," Melissa Gallant, The Nature Conservancy's senior climate adviser, told Bloomberg.”

“Others are not persuaded. Jennifer Skene, global forest policy director at the Natural Resources Defence Council, argued that a tool designed for national climate inventories was never intended for corporate accounting.”

"You don't want any actor who has a climate goal to be reporting removals from the atmosphere without acknowledging or somehow taking into account the fact that some of those forest-based removals really have nothing to do with their corporate action," Nathan Truitt, an American Forest Foundation executive vice president, said. "That is absolutely not what will happen if we adopt [managed land proxy plus]."

    

References:

 

Princeton expert resigns over forest carbon rules, citing threat to 'scientific integrity'. Leslie Sattler. The Cool Down, August 22, 2026. Princeton expert resigns over forest carbon rules, citing threat to 'scientific integrity'

Top Scientist Quits as Forest Carbon Rules Face Greenwashing Claims. Wood Central. August 17, 2026. Forest Carbon Accounting Fight Sees Top Scientist Quit WRI | Wood Central

 

Textile Emissions, Pollution, and Waste: Fast Fashion Accelerates It: Fashion Industry Challenges, Data, Regulations, Sustainability, and Recycling Efforts

 

     The fashion industry, which relies on textile manufacturing and dyeing, is an outsized contributor to climate change, air pollution, and water pollution. It is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions. Thus, efforts towards sustainability have been a focus for the industry for years. Marketing had reflected this trend until the recent affordability challenges. Elsa Ohlen, in a CNBC article, notes:

“…despite the marketing blitz, fashion executives admit that most consumers, battered by a persistent cost-of-living crisis, aren't willing to pay more for an ethically produced product, or "sustainability premium." Instead, shoppers have become increasingly selective and price-sensitive, looking for value above all else.”

     This, she says, has created a retail paradox, where more expensive options are being promoted, but only the cheaper options are selling. The disruption in the Middle East has led to higher oil and oil products prices as well as higher prices for petroleum-based synthetic fibers like polyester. The cost crunch leaves less in the budget for environmental considerations. This is another example where profitability enables environmental spending and lack of profitability disables it.   

     Sustainability and ESG have long been important in the fashion industry, where unfair labor practices and animal welfare issues have been exposed in the past. Pollution and carbon emissions add considerably to the industry’s vulnerability to scrutiny. Scandals can taint brand equity.

     Some fashion companies want to move toward the use of recycled materials, but say they need incentives.  

"There are no short-term incentives to use circular materials, on the contrary, you have to pay more," said Helmersson. "We're acting in a market where there's no price on nature," she said, adding that the industry needs increased taxation on nature – such as taxing the resource footprint of products and services – and decreased taxation on labor.

     I disagree with that carbon tax approach since it would increase costs for consumers, but government incentives could help, maybe something like a tax credit for using recycled materials. The article notes that textile-to-textile recycling is in need of an infrastructure buildout.

     According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group:

“About 80% of discarded clothing ended up in landfills or incinerators, 12% was reused, and less than 1% was recycled into new fibers, the report found.”

     The EU is preparing to regulate textile waste with one goal of disincentivizing overproduction, which has been implicated in the trends toward “fast fashion,” where lower-quality, more or less disposable clothing is mass-produced to be inexpensive. The EU’s proposed rule, designed to address waste and greenwashing, is the "Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation" (ESPR). Failure to comply will lead to financial penalties and reputational damage.

     According to Science Insights:

“Textile waste is any discarded material that comes from clothing, fabrics, or fiber-based products. This includes worn-out garments, factory scraps from manufacturing, unsold inventory, and household items like bedding, towels, and curtains.”

     They note two broad categories of textile waste: pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. Pre-consumer textile waste is the waste from manufacturing, including fabric offcuts, rejected materials, and surplus stock that does not sell. Post-consumer waste is what we consumers discard. Fast fashion’s shorter lifespan means more is needed to replace it.

     The composition of textile waste determines how long it will last in the environment while in use, but especially afterward. Studies have shown that about 70% of textile waste is made of natural fibers, mainly cotton and linen. Synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, and acrylic make up a growing proportion of waste. These do not readily break down in landfills. Fabrics that blend natural and synthetic fibers are troublesome as waste because it is difficult to separate those fibers in recycling steps. Synthetic fibers can take up to 200 years to fully decompose in a landfill. Those synthetic fibers can also leach toxic chemicals that join the landfill leachate. Metal-based additives are in common use in the industry. According to Science Insights, these include zinc compounds used as heat stabilizers and in dyes, copper added as complex dyes, antimony-containing flame retardants, and lead and cadmium salts used as stabilizers in synthetic polymers.

     They also note how the synthetic fibers break down into microplastics :

“Tiny fiber fragments between 1 micrometer and 5 millimeters long are released from synthetic garments during washing, machine drying, and even regular wearing. These microplastic fibers wash into waterways through household drains, passing through many wastewater treatment systems and reaching rivers, lakes, and oceans.”

“Once in the water, these fibers are ingested by aquatic animals, disrupting their metabolic processes. From there, they enter the human food chain through seafood, sea salt, and drinking water. Any manufacturing process that weakens fiber structure, including sanding, brushing, and bleaching, increases the volume of fragments shed during later use. A single load of laundry can release hundreds of thousands of these fibers, and the cumulative effect across billions of households is enormous.”

     Most textile waste is incinerated or landfilled. Fiber-to-fiber recycling, where the fibers of one garment are extracted and remade into another garment, remains uncommon. They list the reasons why below:

     Most textile recycling is “downcycling,” where the discarded clothing is made into lower-quality goods like insulation, cleaning rags, or stuffing material. This delays but does not eliminate the waste stream.

     The EU requires extended producer responsibility (EPR), where the manufacturer is responsible for tracking and collecting post-consumer discarded textile waste. The producers are required to cover the costs of collecting, sorting, and recycling. Some discarded clothing of reasonable quality is resold domestically or exported to secondhand markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Around 30% of textile waste considered for recycling ends up in a landfill. Without collection, it all ends up in a landfill.

     The Boston Consulting Group’s analysis quantified textile waste, where it goes, and other industry statistics. 

     They note the loss in potential raw materials:

“Each year, textile waste worth an estimated $150 billion in raw materials value is lost—resources that are extracted, processed, and then quickly discarded. Recovering even a quarter of these wasted resources could offset the combined annual materials expenditures of the world’s 30 largest fashion companies. The environmental and economic case is clear: reducing textile waste would conserve valuable resources and minimize environmental and social impact.”

     92% of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions come from producing textiles. Incineration, landfilling, and open dumps account for the rest.

     The table below explores barriers to textile recycling in terms of waste generated, sorting, recycling, and processing.

     Potential solutions include designing garments to be recycled, building out collection infrastructure and increasing consumer awareness about collection, developing automated sorting systems, and investing more in waste management. Below they propose five ways to scale up a circular economy for textile waste: 1) Promote demand for textiles with recycled fibers, 2) Collect more waste, 3) Modernize sorting systems, 4) Scale effective recycling solutions, and 5) Invest in innovation.

     They think that success is dependent on industry-wide collaboration or central orchestration by the public sector.

“The textile industry can draw inspiration from other sectors that have successfully transformed through a combination of public subsidies, regulatory incentives, targeted investments, and consumer engagement.”

“The path toward a circular textile economy is in sight, but it requires decisive action across the entire value chain. Industry players must boost demand for recycled fibers, streamline textile waste collection, upgrade sorting infrastructure, expand proven recycling methods, and invest in cutting-edge recycling technologies.”

     The recent sale of millennial fashion darling Everlane to fast-fashion giant Shein does not seem to bode well for sustainable fashion. Shein has had issues with working conditions and environmental impacts. However, Everlane’s CEO says it will remain an independent company and continue its focus on producing sustainable clothing. Everlane epitomized the direct-to-consumer business model. Everlane had taken on too much debt and had been seeking a sale. Shein has been accused of buying the company as a form of greenwashing its own fast fashion products or at least diluting its reputation for unsustainable fashion.

 

 

References:

 

A strange paradox has taken hold of the global fashion industry. Elsa Ohlen. CNBC. May 20, 2026. A strange paradox has taken hold of the global fashion industry

Shein acquiring Everlane feels like the end of the millennial sustainable fashion dream. Juliana Kaplan. Business Insider. May 22, 2026. Shein acquiring Everlane feels like the end of the millennial sustainable fashion dream

What Is Textile Waste? Definition, Sources & Impact. Science Insights. March 14, 2026. What Is Textile Waste? Definition, Sources & Impact - ScienceInsights

Spinning Textile Waste into Value. Rohan Sajdeh, Catharina Martinez-Pardo, Alexander Meyer zum Felde, Tom Lange, Eleonora Tieri, and Elian Evans. Boston Consulting Group. August 12, 2025. Tackling the Global Crisis of Textile Waste | BCG

 

 

Empathy and Politics: ‘Suicidal Empathy,’ the Extents of Moral Concern, the Oppressor/Victim Mentality, and Parochialism vs. Universalism

   

     According to Merriam-Webster, the meaning of empathy is:

“The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.”

     Another similar definition of empathy is:

“The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”

     Caring and concern for others and their feelings and thoughts seem important and like common sense to many of us humans.  

     Elon Musk famously or infamously said that empathy is the fundamental weakness of Western civilization. I don’t think that is correct at all. Certainly, empathy can be misplaced, and that happens frequently where people think they are doing the most good when the data show they are not. It is also difficult to know and to prioritize different actions that benefit others. Net harm and net benefit should be considered. However, immediate relief from suffering should be prioritized in most cases, in my view.

 

Empathy and Compassion Are Similar but Not the Same

     I have come across several people who say they are empaths, that they feel the emotions of others. Some of those do not like what they see as their “gift” and would prefer not to have it. To me, that suggests that empathy is not the same as compassion. Buddhists define compassion more or less as the wish to reduce the suffering of others, themselves, and all beings. The definition of empathy suggests that it is an experience, often one which the person does not choose. Compassion, on the other hand, is most often seen as a choice to act to help others, or in a lesser form, a sincere wish to help others. Empathy in itself is not good or bad, and in order to better understand the plight of others directly, it can be very valuable in fostering the choice to be compassionate. Ideally, it is like a useful precursor to compassion, but that is not always the case. Compassion does not require empathy but can be aided by it. We can be compassionate toward all beings, including the worst of beings, without sharing their feelings or seeing through their eyes.

 

The Left is Not Always More Empathetic

     While the political left is known for empathy more than the political right, those on the right tend to give a little more to charitable causes, which perhaps reflects slightly greater wealth, but also a significant amount of concern that can be construed as empathy. One case where empathy seemed to be missing among those on the far left is the October 7 massacre of civilians in Israel, where many of those on the far left said things like Israel brought this on themselves or that it was bound to happen due to Israeli policies. That was quite shocking to me and many others: that one of the most bloody and brazen attacks on civilians that included cold-blooded murder in many forms, rape, and long-term torture, including psychological torture, was met with such attitudes.

     Those further to the left often espouse an oppressor/victim mentality. This idea derives from Karl Marx and informs their views about conflicts around the world. It has become a leading narrative among them and has informed ideas like critical race theory, intersectionalism, and postcolonial theory, and is part of what has become known as post-Marxism. I do not believe that is the best way to evaluate such conflicts, whether wars or class conflicts. It may provide a lot of fodder for talking points, but it is basically a bunch of hooey.   

 

Suicidal Empathy

     An article in Vox by aid Jilani notes that:

“Suicidal empathy,” the phrase coined by Canadian marketing professor and conservative influencer Gad Saad, is suddenly on the lips of everyone right-of-center”

     Musk promoted Saad’s book, “Suicidal Empathy.” Musk suggested that liberals have empathy for the criminals but not for the victims of crimes, due to their habit of sticking up for those at the bottom. Conservatives who buy into the suicidal empathy narrative point to a 2019 study by a group of psychologists that concluded those on the right have greater concern for those closer to them, including close family and friends, while those on the right extended their concern more to those further from them, including foreigners, homeless people, and animals. Conservatives used the study to conclude that liberals value the lives of distant foreigners and strangers over those of their own family and community. However, a new paper in Political Psychology rejects that view, noting that a greater outward extent of concern does not diminish concern for those nearer. Thus, it is not a zero-sum situation where there is only so much empathy to go around. I think this is a more correct view. The quote below is a snippet from the abstract, which follows the quote.

“In unconstrained settings, greater concern for distant entities does not predict reduced concern for close others; ideological differences reflect how far moral concern extends outward, not compromised ingroup prioritization.”

     The abstract of the 2019 paper, below, presents the study as a comparison of parochialism and universalism. Parochialism refers to expressing more compassion for more structured and less encompassing entities, and universalism refers to more compassion for less structured and more encompassing entities. However, I don’t think being conservative has to mean restricting one’s circle of moral concern, nor do I think being liberal has to mean extending it. There is another Buddhist idea known as equanimity, or impartiality, where one extends compassion while not distinguishing between those near and far. Compassion is extended to all beings without exception. This is easy to say but perhaps much harder to do since we probably have instincts to protect those closer to us. However, those instincts may be motivated by selfish concerns.

     Jilani notes that Kyle Fiore Law, an assistant psychology professor at the University of Utah and one of the authors of the 2026 study, thinks that the 2019 study was not robust enough to give the full prioritizations of liberals and conservatives.

“The 2019 studies measured how far moral concern extends, and they did that well,” Law wrote to me in an email. “They were not designed to detect whether concern for distant others competes with concern for close others, because both tasks built an outward-expanding structure (e.g., from close humans to distant humans to non-human life to eventually the natural world and non-sentient targets) into the measure itself.”    

     The research suggests simply that liberals tend to expand their moral concern further outward than conservatives. This makes sense. Liberals don’t value strangers’ lives more than close friends’ lives, and it is a bit absurd to think that they do. They simply tend to have more concern about those strangers than conservatives tend to have.

“In our data, extending concern outward did not come with reduced concern for close others,” he said.

     Jilani writes:

“Tradeoffs are a fact of life. Whether we should be willing to modestly increase the national debt or taxes to increase foreign aid, for instance, is a question of values rather than something that can be empirically derived.”

     The recent shutdown of USAID is a shining example of a shrinking moral circle of concern by conservatives. Thus, I would say the problem is not liberals with wide circles of concern but conservatives with smaller ones.

     Jilani writes:

“As a species, we succeeded not just because of our capacity to defend our in-groups — our family, friends, community, nations — but because of our ability to understand the interests and values of those far away.”

 

Idiot Compassion

     Buddhists are usually quite familiar with the notion of idiot compassion, where one may harm another more by seeking to ease their suffering in ways that don’t work. It often occurs when one wants to ease their own selfish concerns, rather than truly help others.

     According to a Microsoft Copilot search:

“The term idiot compassion was coined by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa and further explained by his student Pema Chödrön. It refers to being kind or accommodating in ways that ultimately cause more harm than good. This occurs when compassion is expressed without wisdom, boundaries, or courage, often to avoid conflict or discomfort. Essentially, it is compassion that serves the giver’s desire to feel good rather than the recipient’s actual needs.”

     I am not sure if this is the best example, but countries giving money and resources to Gaza, with much of it ending up going to the terrorist group Hamas, which has effectively ruled the region for decades. They used that money to build tunnels and to build up their military capabilities instead of making their society prosperous. It may not be a good example because some of that money did and does relieve suffering. However, some of it is siphoned off by a group that does not care about the suffering of its enemies nor of its citizens. For instance, the UN paid salaries for many employees who were essentially operatives of the terrorist organization.

References:

 

The right says “suicidal empathy” is destroying the West. Here’s the truth. Zaid Jilani. Vox. July 28, 2026. The right says “suicidal empathy” is destroying the West. Here’s the truth.

Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle. Adam Waytz, Ravi Iyer, Liane Young, Jonathan Haidt & Jesse Graham. Nature Communications. volume 10, Article number: 4389 (2019). Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle | Nature Communications

Ideological differences in moral concern reflect circle expansion, not inversion. Kyle Fiore Law, Seoyeon Bae, Liane Young, and Stylianos Syropoulos. Political Psychology. Volume 47. Issue 3. June 2026. Ideological differences in moral concern reflect circle expansion, not inversion - Law - 2026 - Political Psychology - Wiley Online Library

Idiot Compassion and Mindfulness. Derek Beres. Big Think. October 30, 2013. Idiot Compassion and Mindfulness - Big Think