Pure Water Oceanside Builds Indirect Potable Water Reuse Plant in San Diego: It Reduces Potable Water Imports into the City of Oceanside, California and Helps Recharge the Aquifer

     Phase One of Pure Water Oceanside’s indirect potable water reuse plant is up and running, reducing the share of water imported into the city from 89% to 67%. Phase Two will further reduce imports to 44%. The plant, backed by a $71 million investment, treats local wastewater and transforms it into clean drinking water.

     According to San Diego Red:

“Known as Pure Water Oceanside, the program is the first of its kind in the county. It utilizes treated water from the San Luis Rey Water Recovery Facility, subjecting it to ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and advanced ultraviolet oxidation. The purified water is then injected into the Mission Basin aquifer, before being extracted for final treatment and distribution as clean drinking water. This process is classified as indirect potable reuse.”

     The facility currently treats 4.5 million gallons per day with plans to increase that to 6 million gallons per day.

“Oceanside also manages the “La Salina” plant, built in 1949 and recognized as the city’s oldest wastewater treatment facility, which provides secondary treatment prior to ocean discharge. Meanwhile, the San Luis Rey facility continues to produce recycled water for urban landscaping, parks, and golf courses, and it’s the primary source for the Pure Water initiative.”

     Importing drinking water is costly and energy intensive. The local Mission Basin Aquifer has faced depletion, and recharging it with treated wastewater allows for further natural treatment in the aquifer. Water drawn from the aquifer is treated as well to meet drinking water standards.

     The company’s website explains the difference between recycled or reclaimed water and purified water. Recycled/reclaimed water undergoes some treatment and is reused for certain non-potable purposes like agriculture, industrial use, and landscaping. Purified water undergoes several additional purification steps. Oceanside makes this ultra-purified water.

 

 

  

References:

 

San Diego County’s first potable reuse plant: Pure Water Oceanside. Eric Sanchez. San Diego Red. October 3, 2026. San Diego County’s first potable reuse plant: Pure Water Oceanside

Pure Water Oceanside. Website. Pure Water Oceanside | Oceanside, CA

The Difference Between Recycled/Reclaimed Water and Purified Water. Oceanside. The Difference Between Recycled/Reclaimed Water and Purified Water | Oceanside, CA

Mangrove Forests Mitigate Nitrogen Pollution by Trapping Sediment that Contains Anaerobic Microbes That Break It Down in Water: The Potential for Nitrogen Removal Credit Markets

     A recent study published in the journal Earth’s Future estimates that mangrove forests provide $8.7 billion per year in benefits through mitigating coastal nitrogen pollution. That adds to their ability to sequester carbon, to curb coastal erosion, and to protect against storm surges, resulting in an impressive ecosystem services portfolio for the species.

     According to Live Science:

“Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants that grow between the high-tide and low-tide marks in tropical and subtropical coastal regions. Their tall, tangled roots trap sediments rich in microbes that break down nitrogen in the water into nitrogen gas (N2) and nitrous oxide (N2O), effectively removing this nutrient from the ecosystem.”

     The scientists admit that they are just beginning to understand how the microbes enable denitrification.

"We're still really in the infancy of trying to understand what is driving this nitrogen removal," Benoit Thibodeau, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a joint interview with his co-author Ziyan Wang, a doctoral student in environmental science at the same university. "You're taking reactive nitrogen … and you're removing it to the atmosphere as N2, which is nonreactive and has a residence time of thousands of years."

     Nitrogen pollution from fertilizer and manure runoff, and sewage, collects in coastal areas where it depletes the oxygen in the water, a process known as eutrophication, and feeds algal blooms.

     The researchers estimated global nitrogen-removal rates in mangrove forests, noting different rates of nitrogen removal in different forests. They then estimated the amount of nitrogen that mangrove forests could soak up if temperature, salinity, and nitrogen levels were optimal. They utilized previous studies along with their own measurements to arrive at the estimates.

“Microbes in mangrove forests remove nitrogen via two main pathways: denitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). Denitrification transforms nitrate in the water into nitrogen gas and nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas. Anammox, on the other hand, converts nitrite and ammonium into nitrogen gas, which makes up 78% of the atmosphere and is not a greenhouse gas. These pathways work best with relatively high nitrogen concentrations, but there is a threshold past which removal slows, according to the study.”

“These pathways also occur in seagrass meadows and other coastal environments, but mangrove forests are especially good at removing nitrogen because their sediments are oxygen-poor, which promotes the right kind of microbial activity, Wang said.

     The researchers utilized a market valuation akin to carbon credits for the nitrogen-removal benefits to estimate the value of mangrove forests. They are known as blue nitrogen credits.

“Based on what municipalities in countries like Australia and the U.S. pay to get rid of nitrogen in their water systems, Thibodeau and Wang settled on a price of just over $10,000 for every metric ton of nitrogen removed anywhere in the world.”

     The market valuing nitrogen removal is much less mature than carbon markets, which generally have agreed-upon regional prices.

“At the current rate of nitrogen removal, mangroves' cleanup service is worth $8.7 billion per year globally. If removal rose to 5.5 million tons per year, it would be worth around $57 billion annually, according to the study.”

     Below are some of the variables used in estimating nitrogen removal potential in mangrove forests.

     Below, they note that their estimates suggest that nitrogen removal offers much better overall environmental or ecosystem benefits than carbon sequestration, with an economic value potentially 12 times higher.

“The researchers also calculated the economic value of carbon sequestration in mangrove forests and found it was 12 times smaller than that of nitrogen removal. Notably, carbon sequestration is also less stable than nitrogen removal is, because mangroves store carbon in sediments that can be disturbed. On the flip side, mangrove forests convert nitrogen in the water mostly into nitrogen gas, which stays in the atmosphere, Thibodeau said. Nevertheless, mangrove forests "have a very high rate of storage of carbon compared to other ecosystems," he added.

“Mangroves are mostly threatened by sea-level rise and land clearance for infrastructure, Thibodeau said. The results highlight that "we're not only losing space or nature, but we're also losing a very important financial value."

     The researchers note that conventional approaches to wastewater treatment make nitrogen pollution mitigation prohibitively expensive. They also say that water infrastructure funding in the U.S. is inadequate by about $81 billion.

     The authors explain denitrification via anaerobic reduction as the main reaction below, as well as the secondary reaction that converts ammonium and nitrite to nitrogen gas.

“Denitrification, the anaerobic reduction of NO3− to nitrous oxide (N2O) and N2 is generally the primary process responsible for N removal in mangroves (e.g., Reis et al., 2017). This process is thought to be fueled by the amount of available NO3− and organic carbon (OC) (Kraft et al., 2014; Rivera-Monroy & Twilley, 1996). Anammox can also contribute to N removal by converting NH4+ and nitrite (NO2−) directly into N2, partly decoupled from the availability of OC (Fernandes et al., 2012; Meyer et al., 2005). However, despite the increasing recognition of mangroves for their capacity to buffer coastal waters from N pollution (Adame et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2009; Wu et al., 2008), a robust global assessment is lacking.”

     They note that accurate estimation of the global nitrogen removal potential of different mangrove forests is essential to the valuation of nitrogen removal credits in an offset market.

     The graph below shows that carbon sequestration, nitrogen removal, and potential future nitrogen removal are all better where mangrove forests occur in estuarine and deltaic environments compared to open-coast and lagoon environments.

 

References:

 

Mangroves clean up $8.7 billion of nitrogen pollution every year, study finds. Sascha Pare. Live Science. May 8, 2026. Mangroves clean up $8.7 billion of nitrogen pollution every year, study finds | Live Science

Blue Nitrogen: Global Rates and Economic Importance. Ziyan Wang and Benoit Thibodeau. Earth’s Future. Volume 14, Issue 5. May 2026. Blue Nitrogen: Global Rates and Economic Importance - Wang - 2026 - Earth's Future - Wiley Online Library

 

Robert Bryce: Trump’s Media Ban Clearly Violates First Amendment Press Freedom

     

     Robert Bryce is known for telling it like it is. This case is no different, and I agree completely. Constitutional press freedom simply requires Trump to tolerate negative news stories. He may not like it, but that is the way it is. No judge or court should allow him to ban press coverage.

     In this case, Bryce simply states the wording James Madison used when he introduced the amendment:

“The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.”

     As we know, Trump has done other things that may be illegal or unconstitutional, and he often treads on that line between legal and illegal every opportunity he gets. If he doesn’t like it here, he should leave, because that is the way it is. He does not get to make up the rules. That is not how our government works as much as he would like it to be.

     Fortunately, the ban was struck down by a judge, and one that Trump appointed, at that.  

     Bryce continued, regarding the quote:

“That sentence, written by a man who’s often called the “Father of the Constitution,” provides essential context for President Trump’s move last week to bar CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. And to add more foolishness to an already indefensible move, on Friday, while in the Oval Office, Trump went even further, saying, “It’s sick. I mean there’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.”

“Excuse my language, but WTF?”

     I think it is likely that Trump simply doesn’t understand how he is limited by the Constitution, but ignorance is no excuse. If he did, he would not have enacted the ban or uttered the sentence about negative stories.

     Below, he summarizes the potential implications of Trump adding this blunder to his sinking approval ratings. He notes Trump is also damaging the GOP. I would add that the lack of or lackluster pushback by the GOP against Trump’s blunders damages them just as badly. I won’t even consider voting for a Republican until he is long gone.

“Trump’s ban of the media outlets and his mocking of the First Amendment are beyond the pale. They are a strategic blunder, an own goal. And Trump is scoring that own goal at the very moment his approval ratings are the lowest of his political career. A poll released on Monday showed his approval rating is just 32%. That’s the lowest approval rating for a sitting president in the last nine midterms. Further, Trump’s doing more damage to the Republican Party’s brand, and he’s doing it just six weeks before the pivotal midterm elections.”

     Trump later tried to invoke National Security to support the ban, something that has worked with him in the past to bypass Congress and the courts. It won't work this time.

 

 

  

References:

 

Trump v. Madison (And Streisand). Robert Bryce. Substack. September 22, 2026. Trump v. Madison (And Streisand) - Robert Bryce

An Iron Complex Reaction Powered by Light Can Reduce Nitrate to Ammonia, Mitigating Groundwater Pollution: Powered by Heat, It Yields Nitric Oxide: Manipulation of Hydrogen Bonds is the Key

     Researchers at the University of Michigan published a paper in the journal Nature Chemistry that shows how they were able to develop an iron complex that can break down leftover groundwater nitrate from fertilizer, which is typically very stable in the environment. Nitrates are notoriously difficult to chemically reduce and remove from the environment. They are also responsible for harmful algal blooms, promoting cyanobacteria growth, inducing eutrophication, and death of marine life. The new method can reduce nitrate into components that can be recycled for fertilizer.

     According to Phys.org, lead author and chemist Nathaniel Szymczak noted:

"Now we tend to overfertilize crops, and a huge majority of the fertilizer we apply actually leaches away with runoff into streams, groundwater, lakes and oceans," Szymczak said. "Human impacts have basically caused an imbalance, and it's impossible for biological systems to compensate for as much nitrate as we're dumping into them."

     They first studied nitrogen transport and chemical interactions in the environment. They found that hydrogen bonds were the key to binding nitrates as well as to enhancing the chemical reduction of them.

“They found that nitrate transporter proteins—proteins that help plants use nitrates—bind to nitrates using hydrogen bonds. These hydrogen bonds are found in a halo of surrounding molecules called the "secondary sphere."

"When we look at this problem of how we actually tackle nitrate reduction, we look to the enzymes, we look to biology, and what we've found is nature has provided cues about how to bind and reduce nitrate," he said. "We found that just by having well-positioned hydrogen bonds, you can actually change the bonding structure in nitrate and force a subsequent reduction step."

     They began with an iron complex surrounded by a secondary sphere of hydrogen bonds. They were then able to turn hydrogen bonds on, essentially targeting the binding sites on nitrates, in order to prime, or ready them for the next chemical reaction in the reduction process.   

     The researchers note that there are two types of reduction sequences for nitrates: stoichiometric reduction and catalytic reduction.

“Nature’s solution to achieve binding/activation of nitrate is to use networks of hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding) interactions, amino acid residues that are critical to the function of nitrate transport proteins and nitrate reductases.”

     The researchers compared the use of heat and light to power the chemical reaction and got two different chemical results.

“When the researchers used heat to drive the chemical reaction, the iron complex was able to grab oxygen atoms from nitrate, reducing it to nitric oxide. When the researchers used light, the iron complex was able to remove oxygen atoms from nitrate altogether, converting it to ammonia.”

     The ammonia can be reused as fertilizer, and the nitric oxide has medical and industrial uses. The experiments should be considered to be an early step in the development of chemical remediation of nitrates in water, which is needed where fertilizer use is heavy. It should be combined with more efficient, better targeting, timing, and overall optimization of fertilizer applications. Devices would need to be built that could facilitate and control the reduction step. The method could one day be used at facilities like wastewater treatment plants.

"The timeframe for development of solutions to big picture problems has a large time horizon, and they require fundamental studies to develop principles and invent new ways to do molecular transformations that are societally important," Szymczak said. "We are giving people a roadmap of how to achieve the difficult reduction step that we hope could be translated to engineered systems that might be used down the road."

    

References:

 

Iron complex breaks down stubborn pollutant using light-powered reaction. University of Michigan. edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan. Phys.org. September 22, 2026. Iron complex breaks down stubborn pollutant using light-powered reaction

Secondary-sphere hydrogen bonding promotes catalytic nitrate reduction at iron. Writhabrata Sarkar, Andrew R. LaDuca, Riley W. Kazukiewicz & Nathaniel K. Szymczak. Nature Chemistry (2026). Secondary-sphere hydrogen bonding promotes catalytic nitrate reduction at iron | Nature Chemistry

Mission 300: The World Bank and African Development Bank Project That Plans to Halve the Number of People in Africa Living Without Electricity

      Nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity. Mission 300 is a $15 billion development initiative by the World Bank and African Development Bank Group (ADB) that is working to give 50 million Africans living in 40 countries access to reliable electricity by 2030 and ultimately halving the number of people on the continent living without reliable electricity by 2030. This accords with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 7. The Mission 300 goal is to finance and implement National Energy Compacts, “fixed agendas for public ministries, commercial operators, and investors to coalesce around.”

     Andy Corbley of Good News Network writes:

“African development has been a mixed story since the end of colonialism, with shining examples of Botswana and post-war Rwanda clashing with others like Zimbabwe or Sierra Leone.”

     The project has already increased the pace of electrification in several African countries, including Tanzania and Ethiopia.

     Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, noted:

“Mission 300 is helping countries move faster, connect more people, and build a platform that will last well beyond this effort — one others can use, build on, and scale for years to come. At the end of the day, electricity is not just about power. It is about what it enables: jobs, business, health care, education, and opportunity.”

     Thus far, Mission 300 has committed $15 billion in financing and attracted another $4.5 billion in co-financing. Additional development partners have pledged more than $7 billion in support of Africa’s energy sector.

     The World Bank notes:

“Household electricity access improves family welfare. It lights up homes, connects people to information, and makes cooking safer and easier. For communities, electricity keeps hospital lights on and medicine cold. It connects students to the internet and training programs. It powers irrigation systems, commercial farming, and processing plants. It builds digital networks and fuels the industries that create jobs.”

     As the name suggests, the plan is to give 300 million people new access to electricity, with 50 million by 2030. This would be an amazing accomplishment. As pointed out in the forthcoming book, The Energy Illusion, which I recently reviewed, electrifying these poverty-stricken regions is challenging and likely will remain so for a while:

“African Development Bank analysis points to the same pattern: brittle feeders, overloaded transformers, poor collection, and high service cost per connection recur as barriers. When utilities serve long lines badly, losses rise, bills go unpaid, and maintenance slips further. Service worsens. Customers hedge with generators, batteries, charcoal, kerosene, and whatever else keeps the household functioning. The system becomes more expensive to run and less able to earn its way out of fragility.”

     The challenges noted need to be overcome, and hopefully this project will help in that regard.

     The World Bank emphasizes the importance of its model of National Energy Compacts:

“At the heart of our plan are National Energy Compacts—country-led reform roadmaps that unlock investment, align policy, and keep progress on track.”

     As noted below, the plan includes sharing regional power between countries, encouraging private sector participation, addressing the serious issue of clean cooking fuels, addressing people’s ability to pay, and strengthening power utility companies.

     Plans for engaging the private sector are given below.

     Plans for engaging development partners and nonprofits are given below along with de-risking strategies.

 

 

References:

 

Mission 300. World Bank. Mission 300 | Electricity to Power Africa and its Economy

Billion-Dollar Program Connects 50 Million People to the Power Grid Across Africa. Andy Corbley. Good News Network. June 29, 2026. Billion-Dollar Program Connects 50 Million People to the Power Grid Across Africa

Qnetic Energy’s Flywheel for Medium-Duration Mechanical Energy Storage: It Relies on a Contactless, Frictionless, and Wear-Free Rotor

     Flywheels are typically used for very short-duration energy storage on the scale of minutes and seconds and to enhance spinning reserve on power grids. Qnetic Energy has developed a new design that can store energy for longer periods of time, for 4-12 hours. It is an example of mechanical energy storage. Energy is stored as kinetic motion. 

     The company notes that its design has many advantages over the lithium-ion batteries commonly used on power grids. It does not degrade like lithium batteries and other chemical batteries do. There is no danger of fires like there are with lithium batteries. It can charge and discharge multiple times in a day, whereas lithium batteries are cycled no more than once per day to preserve lifespan. This allows it to generate more arbitrage revenue. It does not lose efficiency in weather extremes, cold or hot, like lithium batteries do. Lifetime costs are projected to be lower than lithium batteries. They project that once developed, the costs will be half that of lithium batteries. It has no lithium, cobalt, nor any component dependent on China for supply or supply chains.

     While the technology is not dependent on China for components, it does, apparently, have a technology center in Shanghai. In August 2026, Qnetic began construction of its 200-kWh “Pulsar” Prototype at its test facility and technology center in Shanghai. Pulsar is the company’s alpha prototype. Thus, if testing shows that the design needs to be tweaked, there will be further prototypes, as is often the case with new technologies.

“According to the engineering partner, Qnetic’s flywheel system stores substantially more energy than conventional high-speed spin test applications. As a result, the associated containment and safety requirements are exceptional and operate on a scale rarely encountered in existing testing infrastructure.”

     Once the prototype is built, it will commence validation testing.

“A rotor spins at nearly three times the speed of sound inside a vacuum enclosure, supported by magnetic bearings that virtually eliminate friction. When electricity is needed, the rotating mass drives a generator, returning power to the grid.”

“Because the system relies on no electrochemical reactions, Qnetic says its technology can operate for decades with minimal degradation while offering rapid response times, unlimited cycling capability, and eliminating both fire risk and dependence on critical minerals.”

“The 200-kWh Pulsar system is designed for applications including AI data centers, renewable energy time shifting, grid stabilization, microgrids, and industrial energy resilience.”

“The company is headquartered in New York with additional locations in Sacramento, Shanghai, Singapore, and Germany. Qnetic was founded by Michael Pratt (CEO) and Loïc Bastard (CTO).”

     The company recently completed construction of a production center in Sacramento, California. It has a factory and assembly floor designed specifically for low-volume assembly, testing, and quality validation. The company has recently joined the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) deRISKED program, sponsored directly by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

     Recent testing confirms a 97.3% conversion efficiency. This is compared to efficiencies between 85% and 95% for lithium-ion batteries and 95% for lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, both of which are used on power grids.

     The company’s commercialization plans, shown below, are ambitious. They plan to get from the current prototype testing period to production and deployment of 3500 units annually beginning in 2030.

References:

 

A carbon-fiber rotor spinning in a vacuum. That's the battery: No chemistry inside. It can't degrade and it can't burn. Designed to run for 30 years. Qnetic Energy. Invest in Qnetic — Regulation CF

Revolutionising Energy Storage with Qnetic. Qnetic Energy. Website. Discover Long-Duration Flywheel Storage | Qnetic

Qnetic Aligns with Major California Utility as EPRI Evaluates Flywheel Performance. September 12, 2026. Qnetic Energy. News. Qnetic Aligns with Major California Utility as EPRI Evaluates Flywheel Performance - Qnetic

Pulsar Motor Reaches 130 kW Output at 97.3% Efficiency. Qnetic Energy. News. September 15, 2026. Pulsar Motor Reaches 130 kW Output at 97.3% Efficiency  - Qnetic

Qnetic Begins Construction of the World’s Largest Flywheel Energy Storage Test Facility and Assembles First 200-kWh “Pulsar” Prototype. Qnetic Energy. News. August 12, 2026. Qnetic Builds World's Largest Flywheel Test Facility

Qnetic Sacramento Production Center Completed. Qnetic Energy. News. September 12, 2026. Qnetic Sacramento Production Center Completed - Qnetic

 

 

 

 

Trade and Globalization Curb Nationalism, Ethnocentrism, and Prejudice, Walker Wright Argues

        More insights about trade from Walker Wright, author of the forthcoming book In Trade We Trust: How Commerce Makes Us More Social.

     Despite what he calls a growing populist backlash against globalization and international trade as well as Trump’s obsession with tariffs, there are very real benefits to trade and globalization. He notes:

“Many critics portray international trade as an example of “foreign intrusions on national sovereignty.”

     He first cites Milton Friedman and his book, Capitalism and Freedom, where he leans on the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker. Friedman suggested that discrimination is monopolistic and that there is less of it where there is higher freedom of competition.

     He cites a Brookings Institution survey that shows that people with the most nationalistic and ethnocentric attitudes tend to distrust trade and globalization the most, and vice versa.

     He cites a study by political scientists Edward Mansfield and Diana Mutz that concludes that people with nationalistic and ethnocentric attitudes tend to not like outsourcing and vice versa. This is fairly obvious, and the graph below reflects that it is indeed the case.

     He cites a long-term (1977-2010) study by Northwestern University’s James Lindgren, who concluded:

“Those who support capitalism and freer markets and oppose greater income redistribution tend to be . . . less traditionally racist” and “less intolerant of unpopular groups.”

     That is an interesting conclusion but does not seem to accord with anti-capitalists who like to equate capitalism with racism and colonialism, and who often see capitalists as oppressors rather than as liberators. The data suggests that capitalism is far more liberating than oppressive. He cites other studies as well that equate capitalism and free markets with greater tolerance.

     He cites several studies by Niclas Berggren and Therese Nilsson that investigated the relationship between tolerance, economic freedom, and globalization.

“The evidence they gathered suggests a causal relationship between the level of economic globalization and the willingness of parents to teach their children tolerance.”

     The graph below shows one of those studies, and the results are clear: market societies are more tolerant.

     The graph below from one of their studies shows that where economic freedom is deemed greater, racial tolerance is also greater.

     He cites another study by researchers at St. Olaf College, Stanford University, and George Mason University, who concluded that we tend to have more favorable views of people and have more cordial ties with people from countries we do business with.

     He cites other studies and experiments that also conclude that greater economic cooperation leads to greater tolerance of ethnic minorities. He also suggests that protectionism promotes economic isolationism and can make intolerance more popular as well.

“Protectionist restrictions can exacerbate prejudicial attitudes. As the late economist Walter Williams explained, anti-competitive regulation “lowers the private cost of discriminating against the racially less-preferred person.” But when there is money to be made, trading only with groups who look or think like you doesn’t seem so important. And the more you trade with different groups, the more you realize that maybe, just maybe, they aren’t as bad as you thought.”

     He cites a study in Eurasia which showed that where trade is higher, intergroup marriage rates are higher, which is certainly a proxy for greater tolerance. He also notes that in the past, when new forms of travel, like railroads in the 19th-century U.S., became prevalent, there was greater extra-community marriage.

     He notes that the media also plays a role in promoting or opposing tolerance. Below, he explains that in the context of the 19th-century U.S., as more people traveled and moved to areas where market integration was high, tolerance increased and people began to take part in the wider American society rather than just the local society.

“Other signs of tolerance and trust became apparent: Newspapers began to adopt language that reflected generalized trust. Parents began to give children nationally popular names rather than locally distinctive ones, implying a social circle that had extended beyond the local community. But one of the strongest findings was the increase in religious diversity: A 1 percent increase in market access raised religious diversity by 0.27 standard deviation, indicating a greater tolerance for religious identity and practice. Perhaps most striking, families who moved to these more market-integrated areas adapted quickly, especially those working in commerce-intensive industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, and transportation.”

     Regular commercial contact makes people less suspicious of outsiders. Thus, trade, in a way, teaches and fosters tolerance.

“By commerce we enlarge our acquaintance with the terraqueous globe and its inhabitants, which tends to greatly expand the mind, and to cure us of many hurtful prejudices. . . . No person can taste the sweets of commerce, which absolutely depends upon a free and undisturbed intercourse of different and remote nations, but must grow fond of peace, in which alone the advantages he enjoys can be had.”

 

References:

 

How Open Economies Lead to Open Minds: Trade undermines bigotry and rewards toleration. Walker Wright. Human Progress. April 7, 2026. How Open Economies Lead to Open Minds - Human Progress