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Environment

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Justine Calma
Don’t believe all the hype about de-extinction.

Scientists have had to contend with a spate of misinformation this year about efforts to purportedly resurrect long-lost species like the woolly mammoth.

It’s far more impactful to help endangered species now — especially as the US rolls back protections and climate change makes the world a more inhospitable place for already threatened creatures.

Don’t expect Trump Media’s nuclear fusion power plant to generate electricity soon

The energy demands of AI are driving investment in futuristic fusion reactors from Big Tech and now Trump Media. Is it viable?

Justine Calma
Communities are rising up against data centers — and winningCommunities are rising up against data centers — and winning
Science
The Verge’s 2025 in review
Justine Calma
AI’s water and electricity use soars in 2025AI’s water and electricity use soars in 2025
News
The ‘mad rush’ to install solar panels before tax credits run out

The solar industry is pivoting to survive Donald Trump’s attacks on clean energy.

Justine Calma
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Justine Calma
The US is hiding more information about climate change.

The Trump administration has taken down content about the human causes of global warming — greenhouse gases from fossil fuels — from the Environmental Protection Agency website, part of a larger purge of science-backed information on federal websites.

“It’s clearly a deliberate effort to misinform,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tells the Washington Post.

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Justine Calma
AI reasoning models are even more energy intensive.

They used 30 times more electricity on average than other models according to research by the AI Energy Score project that included responses to 1,000 written prompts. “We should be smarter about the way that we use AI ... Choosing the right model for the right task is important,” Hugging Face research scientist Sasha Luccioni tells Bloomberg.

UN climate negotiations burned up and then fizzled outUN climate negotiations burned up and then fizzled out
Report
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Justine Calma
A global roadmap for ditching fossil fuels hangs in the balance.

Negotiators are deadlocked in a tumultuous close to United Nations climate talks. A proposed roadmap for transitioning away from coal, oil, and gas has become a flashpoint. “We’re facing the reality of a no-deal scenario” EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said earlier today.

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Justine Calma
UN climate talks were literally on fire.

A blaze broke out in the conference venue Thursday, just ahead of negotiations scheduled to come to a close today in Brazil.

The new silicon valley (literally)

Is the promise of jobs worth all the water and chemicals it takes to manufacture chips in the Arizona desert?

Justine Calma
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Justine Calma
1 in every 25 attendees at the UN climate conference is a fossil fuel lobbyist.

More than 1,600 lobbyists for oil, coal, and gas have crowded into pivotal international climate negotiations going down in Brazil. They outnumber delegations from every country in attendance except for Brazil, according to an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition.

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Justine Calma
Utilities around the world pledged $1 trillion in grid and renewable energy investments by 2030.

The Utilities for Net Zero Alliance made the announcement Friday during the UN climate conference taking place in Brazil. Investment need to grow from $390 billion in 2024 to $670 billion annually between now and 2030 to update power grids, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

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Justine Calma
NASA and the European Space Agency launched a satellite to monitor sea levels.

“Sentinel-6B will ensure that we continue to collect the high-precision data needed to understand our changing climate,” ESA’s director of earth observation programmes, Simonetta Cheli said in a press release.

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Justine Calma
Disinformation comes to the forefront of UN climate negotiations.

Brazil, Canada, Chile, and at least seven other countries have endorsed a new ‘declaration’ to combat disinformation on climate change. It came together during the United Nations climate conference taking place this month, where more than 200 advocacy groups have called on governments to crack down on misleading content in advertising and online platforms.

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Justine Calma
Data centers are already influencing the global forecast for clean energy.

Growing electricity demand for AI and the Trump administration’s love of natural gas have influenced the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook, Heatmap reports.

UN climate talks are getting weirdUN climate talks are getting weird
Report
Report
Justine Calma
How deep-sea mining could threaten a vital ocean food source

New industry-backed research shows how waste from deep-sea mining could have far-reaching effects on fish and their food.

Justine Calma
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Justine Calma
A nuclear energy startup and the Silicon Valley and MAGA bigwigs backing it are chipping away at federal oversight of new reactor designs.

“All these nuke bros who know nothing about operating a reactor, they just want a free pass,” Allison Macfarlane, former chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tells Bloomberg. “They can have their free pass, but then they will have an accident.”

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Justine Calma
Energy Star might survive after all.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is considering keeping it alive, following news earlier this year that the Trump administration would shutter the money-saving program as part of its efforts to roll back energy and water efficiency standards.

Why is Bill Gates tone policing on climate change? Why is Bill Gates tone policing on climate change? 
Report
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Justine Calma
Government shutdowns tend to be bad for the air we breathe.

Coal-fired power plants pumped out as much as 20 percent more particle pollution during the last federal government shutdown in 2018 and 2019 as the US Environmental Protection Agency froze inspections.

The current shutdown has lasted nearly a month now, inching closer to the 2018-2019 record for the longest in history.