Angelo Villagomez

This fictional story was written in response to the recent Request for Information (RFI) to begin deep sea mining near the Mariana Trench, one of the most unique and fragile ecosystems on Earth, and my ancestral backyard. It follows the beats of every Hallmark Christmas movie ever made, where someone from the city goes to the countryside and has a change of heart thanks to the power of Christmas.  I had fun writing it. For those who want to learn more about this complex issue without the power of the Christmas Spirit, Friends of the Mariana Trench created a resource document to help the community understand the science, economics, and cultural implications of mining in the Trench. We encourage our followers to participate in the public comment period. The most impactful thing you can do is write a unique comment and submit it to the federal register . You can also sign our petition for individuals and our letter for organizations . Chapter One Miller blinked against the darkne...

On November 12, 2025, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a Request for Information and Interest (RFI) for “ Commercial Leasing for Outer Continental Shelf Minerals Offshore the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) .” This is the first step in a process that could lead to deep-sea mining in U.S. Pacific waters. The RFI opens a 30-day public comment period, closing December 12, 2025, though the governors of Guam and CNMI have requested a 120-day extension, citing the need for more time to assess environmental, cultural, and economic impacts. READ & BOOKMARK: Mariana Trench Deep Sea Mining Educational Resources The proposed RFI area covers over 35 million acres -- an area the size of New York state -- just east of the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, with depths ranging from 3,700 to 25,100 feet. BOEM is seeking input across 18 categories, including potential effects on marine ecosystems, Indigenous communities, fisheries, cultural resour...

Tide pooling with the Kelp Forest Alliance in Santa Barbara, California I wrote this introduction for the Kelp Forest Alliance's State of the World's Kelp Forests Report . I love kelp. I can usually smell it before I see it, that briny, earthy, seaweed scent that conjures childhood memories of running along the water towards piles of matted discovery. Where there is kelp, there are crabs, anemones, and on lucky days, whales and furry ocean animals. But it’s no secret that kelp is threatened today by human activities, and a warming ocean with lower nutrients and more sea urchins. Climate change makes it more difficult for kelp to grow in the places where it has grown for all of human history, and poor water quality and harmful fishing can damage not only their structure and function but the biodiversity associated with kelp forests. We know how important kelps are for ocean health and for people, too. They play a role in the identity and culture of Indigenous and coastal ...

The stories told on public lands and waters and the names given to these places reflect America’s values and self-identity. Telling the real stories of all Americans is patriotic and critical to maintaining democracy. A balanced portrayal of American history helps to cultivate informed and engaged citizens, understand the present, and prevent future atrocities. It is a form of democratic self-defense. But when democracies allow historical distortions to take root, it leads to the creation of nationalist myths that extremists can exploit. For much of American history, the roles of certain communities in national stories were suppressed and ignored even as they faced extreme acts of violence and discrimination. As a result, attempts to tell an accurate history of America are often incomplete and one-sided. But there has been progress. During the 20th century, the advances in equity for women, Native Americans, Black Americans, immigrants, and others extended to many aspects of life...

I did not write this essay.  I recorded myself giving an hour long lecture at Cornell this week and loaded the transcript into ChatGPT and asked it to highlight the main arguments and recommendations from my talk. If you attended my talk, I think you would agree this is an accurate encapsulation of what I said. When I was a college student we took an honor pledge, that the work we submitted was our own.  These are my words and ideas, but they are rearranged by a computer.  I can't even begin to imagine how professors and colleges are dealing with the rise of AI in the classroom, and the nuances of what is ethical and allowed. I was reading Kamala Harris' book 107 Days this week, and in it she talks about how lawyers joke about the argument they wanted to make, the argument they made, and the argument they should have made.  The same is true of my Cornell talk.  There was the talk I planned to make, the talk I made, and the talk I should have made.  I'm givi...

This piece was first published in  Mongabay . I’m in Nice, France, this week attending the   U.N. Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 : Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. If my   Tiaki Moana   colleagues have any say over it, stars and lighthouses are going to be a main topic of conversation here this week. Let me explain. During the  Tiaki Moana  conference in Tahiti last April, we discussed how maritime navigators use many tools to cross the ocean, ranging from stars in the night sky to lighthouses. Olivier Chassot, an official with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), kicked off a discussion of how  marine protected areas  (MPAs) and  marine other effective conservation measures  (mOECMs) — policy tools used by the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity to protect the ocean — are like lighthouses and stars, respe...

Speakers and presenters from the "Beyond 30x30" symposium during the 7th International Marine Conservation Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. This piece was first published in Mongabay . In his first week in office back in 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden   signed   a historic commitment to conserve 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. Two years later, the world agreed to a similar commitment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The initiative, commonly known as 30×30, has since become a rallying cry around the world for more and better conservation. But among an avalanche of other executive actions in the past month, President Donald Trump overturned the U.S.’s 30% commitment. Given a chaotic first few weeks, this action went largely unreported, but like many of the things happening in the U.S. right now, it will have global implications. This loss is significant. The U.S.’s 30×30 goal  enshrined  in the America the Beautiful for All initia...