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The influence of stories on garden design stretches beyond practical instruction. A folk tale about sunflowers following the sun can encourage planting them at the edge of a yard where they lean toward evening light. A diary from a Victorian gardener may inspire neat rows or clipped hedges. Even novels where gardens appear only in passing can shift a mood. The words set scenes that eventually find their echo in real soil.

The post How Reading About Plants Can Inspire Your Own Backyard Garden appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Power of Words in Growing Ideas

Books about plants have a way of shaping more than just knowledge. They stir imagination in ways that a seed packet never could. A chapter describing the scent of lavender fields can linger like perfume in the mind. The story of an ancient oak can make a small backyard tree feel like kin. Writers have always turned soil into symbol and blossoms into metaphors. That quiet magic slips into the reader’s own view of the world and starts nudging thoughts toward action.

Project Gutenberg works as a large digital library on many different topics and it often holds forgotten garden guides or modern works on permaculture. A single passage about kitchen herbs thriving in clay pots may spark the idea to place basil on a windowsill. Descriptions of plant companions can inspire new pairings in a flowerbed. Reading provides more than advice. It offers mood. Tone. Rhythm. In this way the written page can plant a seed long before the spade touches earth.

How Gardens Take Shape Through Stories

The influence of stories on garden design stretches beyond practical instruction. A folk tale about sunflowers following the sun can encourage planting them at the edge of a yard where they lean toward evening light. A diary from a Victorian gardener may inspire neat rows or clipped hedges. Even novels where gardens appear only in passing can shift a mood. The words set scenes that eventually find their echo in real soil.

This connection is not about copying what is read word for word. It is about catching an image and allowing it to evolve. Reading a description of wild meadows might push someone to leave a corner uncut for butterflies. A passage on Japanese tea gardens may awaken curiosity about stones and water. These moments create a mosaic of borrowed yet personal visions that shape the ground underfoot.

Lessons Sprouting From Pages

Books rarely shout advice. Instead they weave lessons into their narratives. Sometimes these lessons speak through characters who tend roses with patience. Other times they hide in manuals filled with diagrams and Latin names. Both have value. They show patience as virtue and planning as necessity. Taken together they offer a balance between heart and hand.

There are three strands that appear again and again in these readings and they can guide any new garden project:

• Patience in Growth

Stories often reveal how slow time in a garden really is. A tree described across chapters shows how years bring shape and presence. Patience becomes part of the learning. No shortcut can replace the steady march of seasons. Descriptions of growth remind the reader that a seed takes months not minutes to reveal its gift. Garden books that return to the same patch over decades highlight how change is part of the beauty. The waiting itself becomes an act of participation. It shifts gardening from task to relationship where time is the main partner and not just a backdrop.

• Respect for Cycles

Many texts underline the idea that cycles rule nature. From compost heaps returning scraps to soil to perennials rising each spring the rhythm of return is constant. Writers capture this pattern with phrases that mark seasons like beats in a song. Reading about such cycles reminds a gardener that nothing stands still. A plant may wither yet feed the next round of life. Books on biodynamic farming or ancient lore often frame these cycles as harmony between earth sky and water. Respecting cycles brings resilience and humility into any backyard garden.

• Creativity in Space

Garden writing often plays with images of space and layout. Descriptions of monastic cloisters or sprawling palace grounds can translate into modest backyard choices. Creativity flows not from budget but from vision. A novel might describe a hidden garden door that suggests creating a small shaded nook. A travel memoir might detail spice markets that inspire rows of fragrant herbs. Reading unlocks a playful way of seeing land. It turns bare ground into a canvas where imagination holds the brush.

By threading these lessons into practice a garden begins to mirror the spirit of the stories that inspired it.

A Garden as Living Literature

Every backyard filled with plants carries a story. Reading makes those stories richer and deeper. A patch of rosemary may recall a medieval recipe book. A climbing rose may echo a poet’s line about tangled romance. The garden becomes not just a place of soil but a living library where each plant is a line of verse.

Books remind gardeners that growth comes in many forms. Some growth belongs to stems and leaves. Some belongs to the mind that learned to see them anew. The act of reading and the act of planting

Robert Redford, actor, director, and lifelong environmentalist, leaves behind a legacy of art in service of the Earth

The post Robert Redford, actor and environment activist dead at 89 appeared first on Green Prophet.

Robert Redford — Oscar-winning director, founder of the Sundance Institute, and one of America’s most loved actors and influential environmental advocates — died on September 16, 2025, at his home in Utah. He was 89. News of his death was confirmed by multiple outlets.  Redford leveraged his worldwide fame to protect wild lands, accelerate climate action, and fund storytelling that moves people to care about the planet. In short, a true Green Prophet.

Below are five of his biggest environmental causes and achievements—each documented by reliable sources.

Longtime NRDC trustee and voice for climate action

Redford served for decades as a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), using that platform to press for clean energy, clean air, and conservation. He opened NRDC’s groundbreaking “green” headquarters in 2003 and addressed UN climate ministers in 2015, urging faster action. He received multiple conservation honors, including the Audubon Medal (1989). The film above was produced and screened for the UN event.

Co-founding The Redford Center to fund impact storytelling

In 2005, Redford and his son James co-founded The Redford Center, a nonprofit that produces and funds films and campaigns to drive environmental progress. The Center’s short “Robert Redford’s Environmental Legacy” premiered during the Paris COP21 events, highlighting his belief that art and nature together can change the world.

Good film has the power to change the world. See Woody Harrelson on regenerative agriculture.

Protecting Utah’s public lands and sacred places (Bears Ears)

Redford was a fierce defender of the American West, partnering with Tribes and local communities to safeguard Bears Ears and other landscapes. He publicly urged federal leaders to designate and then protect Bears Ears National Monument.

Early, effective opposition to a Utah coal plant

In the 1970s to 80s, Redford helped lead opposition to a coal-fired power plant proposal near his Sundance home and in the Kaiparowits region. The fight became a defining early win for conservationists—so prominent that some locals burned him in effigy.

Elevating independent voices through Sundance

By founding the Sundance Institute and Festival (1981), Redford created the world’s most influential incubator for independent film—amplifying environmental narratives and careers that changed culture. His broader public service was recognized with the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Across five decades, Redford fused art, advocacy, and institution-building: NRDC trustee and national climate voice; co-founder of an environmental media nonprofit; steadfast defender of public lands; an early, successful opponent of local coal development; and creator of Sundance, which gave countless environmental stories a stage. These contributions sit alongside his film achievements (Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It, All the President’s Men) and national honors. May more people be inspired by legends like Redford and may his family be comforted in this difficult time.

 

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A  team of scientists say they can predict attacks and blackouts, making the grid more resilient –– and they are using AI.

The post How artificial intelligence can stop grid cyber-attacks and over-load appeared first on Green Prophet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AI could be the key to protecting our solar-powered future — making grids smarter, safer, and resilient against blackouts and cyberattacks.

Elon Musk has been saying it for years and it’s something that solar power pioneers already know: the sun has enough energy to power all of our energy needs. The problem is limited not only by making sure that people get the technology to harvest the sun on solar panels, but in cities and urban centers one of the biggest issues is storage and what to do with a surplus of energy when the sun shines? Consumers and businesses, when they can, typically shoot back the energy to the grid where they earn money or credits for what they’ve contributed.

But electricity grids can’t always handle excessive or varying amounts of energy. It’s a complicated switchboard that can be overloaded during extreme heat waves when everyone turns on their air conditioners. Energy managers want to make the grids most efficient and mixed with the least carbon intensive energy sources, but how? And what about cyber attacks that can bring down an entire nation’s power like what happened in Spain and Portugal this year. A  team of scientists say they can predict attacks and blackouts, making the grid more resilient –– and they are using AI.

Related: Maria Telkes, solar over and solar home energy pioneer

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed brain-inspired AI algorithms that detect physical problems, cyberattacks and both at the same time within the grid. And this neural-network AI can run on inexpensive single-board computers or existing smart grid devices.

“As more disturbances occur, whether from extreme weather or from cyberattacks, the most important thing is that operators maintain the function and reliability of the grid,” said Shamina Hossain-McKenzie, a cybersecurity expert and leader of the project. “Our technology will allow the operators to detect any issues faster so that they can mitigate them faster with AI.”

The importance of cyber-physical protection

As the United States adds more smart controls and devices to the grid, it becomes more flexible and autonomous but also more vulnerable to cyberattacks and cyber-physical attacks. Cyber-physical attacks use communications networks or other cyber systems to disrupt or control a physical system such as the electric grid. Potentially vulnerable equipment includes smart inverters that turn the direct current produced by solar panels and wind turbines into the alternating current used by the grid, and network switches that provide secure communication for grid operators, said Adrian Chavez, a cybersecurity expert involved in the project.

Because the neural network can run on single-board computers, or existing smart grid devices, it can protect older equipment as well as the latest equipment that lack only cyber-physical coordination, Hossain-McKenzie said.

Related: Could AI save Ivanpah from shutting down?

“To make the technology more accessible and feasible to deploy, we wanted to make sure our solution was scalable, portable and cost-efficient,” Chavez said.

The package of code works at the local, enclave and global levels. At the local level, the code monitors for abnormalities at the specific device where it is installed. At the enclave level, devices in the same network share data and alerts to provide the operator with better information on whether the issue is localized or happening in multiple places, Hossain-McKenzie said.

Plenty of European and American architects are piling on to say that Neom, in Saudi Arabia is a sustainable idea. They make a fortune doing it. Al Gore warned in An Inconvenient Truth: “We are witnessing a collision between our civilization and the Earth.” That collision is fueled not just by carbon but by entrenched […]

The post Are you tangled up in climate conflict, because your job depends on it? New study appeared first on Green Prophet.

Al Gore warned in An Inconvenient Truth: “We are witnessing a collision between our civilization and the Earth.” That collision is fueled not just by carbon but by entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo. A new study in Environmental Science & Technology Letters shows how corporate capture—the ability of industries to shape the very institutions meant to regulate them—remains one of the greatest obstacles to solving the climate crisis.

First studied in the 1940s, corporate capture has been documented across sectors from fossil fuels and chemicals to food, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. The new research, led by Professor Alex Ford of the University of Portsmouth and the International Panel on Chemical Pollution, warns that without reform, capture will obstruct efforts to address what the UN calls the triple planetary crises: climate change, biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution.

Ford describes a subtle but systemic web of influence: those tasked with protecting people and the planet can become entangled—sometimes unknowingly—in a web where funding, data, and decision-making are steered by vested interests. These strategies do not always look like outright corruption; they are often subtle, systemic, and deeply embedded.

Examples range from “Frackademia,” where universities accept fossil fuel research dollars, to pesticide companies sponsoring scientific conferences, and museums criticized for partnering with oil companies. Adam Werbach, once the youngest-ever president of the Sierra Club, famously left mainstream activism to work with Walmart in the 2000s. His shift illustrated how corporate partnerships—even well-intentioned ones—can blur lines between advocacy and business interest.

In 2011, the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) released The Future of Natural Gas, which stated that “natural gas provides a cost-effective bridge to a low-carbon future” and supported the exporting of liquified natural gas. A major sponsor of the report was the American Clean Skies Foundation, founded and chaired by Aubrey McClendon, CEO of the nation’s No. 2 gas producer Chesapeake Energy.

It is common for the New York Times, a prominently left-wing, liberal newspaper, to accept full page ads on how Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco are leading the renewable energy transition, while Aramco is the largest oil and gas producer in the world.

And in the Seychelles, Green Prophet has reported how even conservation groups meant to safeguard biodiversity, such as those monitoring Assomption Island near Aldabra Atoll, were appointed by the government itself. This raises a structural conflict of interest: when the very institutions charged with protecting nature are chosen by political actors who also approve destructive resort developments, their independence is compromised.

The study catalogues the recurring tactics industries use: watering down environmental laws, suppressing or delaying critical research, funding NGOs or cultural institutions to soften messaging, and using media platforms to amplify denial or disinformation.

Not all ties to industry are damaging, the authors note. The private sector has played an important role in developing innovative technologies and supporting environmental initiatives. But involvement must be transparent, accountable, and free from conflicts of interest that undermine wellbeing.

The IPCP researchers recommend stronger conflict-of-interest policies, transparent disclosure of funding, and training for students in environmental sciences to spot disinformation and influence tactics.

September 18, 2025