"The artificial intelligence race is creating demand for more than data centers and electricity. It is also creating a new market for the chemicals needed to keep increasingly powerful computer chips from overheating. Some of those cooling technologies rely on PFAS, a broad class of fluorinated compounds already responsible for widespread drinking water contamination in North Carolina."
"A handful of mega data center projects would emit over 100 million tons per year of greenhouse gases, an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country."
"Half a billion pastoralists draw on generations of knowledge to thrive on rangelands. They say protecting their way of life would help others prepare for a hotter, drier world."
"Grape growers in Mexico have a new tool to fight powdery mildew, a common fungal disease, after the country became the first in the world to approve the commercial sale of an RNA-based biofungicide." "Oifirax, created by GreenLight Biosciences, uses RNA molecules to kill the fungus responsible for powdery mildew on grapes"
"Congressional lobbyists working for fossil fuel firms that are exacerbating the climate crisis are simultaneously representing more than 300 local governments raising funding to recover from climate damage, according to a new analysis."
"A troubling trend has shown up in some communities around the U.S.: Public officials are being inundated with seemingly fake public feedback that aims to block renewable energy and promote fossil fuels."
"The Trump administration is moving to make it harder for communities to weigh in on proposed data centers, even as a backlash against the behemoth projects grows across the country." "Under the proposal, states would no longer need to provide public notice or solicit comments on air pollution permits for data centers and other projects."
"In a decades-long crisis, marine life has suffered as oxygen periodically dwindles in waters along the Gulf Coast."
"President Trump has been scornful of electric cars for years. But his administration is now pouring billions of dollars into the battery technology that powers them."
"The United States has doubled down on its opposition to plastic production limits in global treaty talks, according to a diplomatic memo reviewed by The Washington Post, pushing to create a broad loophole to disregard the treaty on national security grounds."
