Login
AI’s Impact on the Environment Is Absolutely Horrifying, New Paper Finds
The impact artificial intelligence has had on the environment has been nothing short of devastating. The data centers powering the boom have been spewing out a staggering amount of pollution by relying on fossil fuel-powered generators. And given the industry’s unrelenting appetite for more infrastructure supporting ever-more-resource-intensive AI models, the trend is only going to get worse from here.
It’s reached the point that AI is giving the fossil fuel industry a substantial leg up, as a new paper published in the journal NPJ Climate Action details. The authors found that the industry has been using AI to increase productivity, drill for more oil, and reap even greater profits, vastly outweighing any benefits from AI-enabled advances in the renewable energy sector. Put simply, AI’s impact on the environment greatly exceeds emissions linked to data centers.
Air Pollution-Linked Blood Changes Detected Years Before Lung Cancer Diagnosis
A new study, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, found measurable changes in people’s blood associated with exposure to air pollution and the subsequent development of lung cancer. The findings provide promising clues that could help shape future cancer research, detection and prevention strategies.
Air pollution exposure is already widely recognized as a key environmental cause of lung cancer. However, less is known about the changes that occur in a person’s body following exposure to air pollution that leads to these adverse health effects.
This new study — led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health — found molecular signs of changes in the blood of people who had been exposed to air pollution. These changes were detectable several years before participants were diagnosed with lung cancer.
EPA Punts Microplastics Monitoring as Scientists Warn of Health Impacts
If you’ve ever looked at a disposable bottle of water with suspicion before tossing it into a bin, you’re far from alone. On August 8, leading scientists across globe published an editorial in The Lancet warning there is “strong evidence” that plastics harm human health and natural ecosystems at every stage of production and consumption — from fracking for the fossil fuels used to make plastics, to the microplastics leaching into our bodies and the environment.
Plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060 if governments fail to act. Much of that harm is traced back to more than 16,000 chemicals used in plastic production. Hazardous plastic chemicals include known carcinogens, neurotoxicants, and endocrine disruptors such as phthalates, bisphenols, brominated flame retardants, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of highly persistence chemicals linked to a range of health harms, according to The Lancet.
Defined as pieces of plastic less than five millimeters in size, microplastics break down into even smaller nanoplastics that are invisible to the naked eye and notoriously efficient at carrying harmful chemicals into the internal organs of humans and animals. Microplastics also do not go away over time, and their release into the environment could double globally by 2040 unless current levels of pollution are reduced.
WV Dep Approves Air Quality Permit for Plastic Pyrolysis Facility in Belle Despite Local Resistance
The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a finalized air quality permit on Wednesday to Clean-Seas West Virginia, allowing the out-of-state company to move forward with the construction of a controversial “advanced recycling” plant in eastern Kanawha County.
The permit was approved despite numerous concerns raised by dozens of residents in Belle, West Virginia, where the plant would be located, as well as the Kanawha County Commission and Charleston City Council. In the DEP’s final determination letter, regulators said that the concerns voiced by residents — including the company’s financial instability, the proposed facility’s impact on air quality, the region’s burgeoning tourism economy and its proximity to local schools, among other things — did not violate the state’s set standards for issuing air quality permits.
For locals and advocates who have been organizing in opposition to the facility, the DEP’s permit approval was not a surprise, but was still disappointing.
Iran Oil Spill: The War Is Leaving Environmental Scars That Ceasefires Cannot Heal
Oil slicks moving along Iran’s southern coast have reached the Hara mangrove forests of Qeshm Island. Iranian authorities say the extent of the contamination is still being assessed and the source of the oil pollution has not yet been established. But several oil spills have been detected in the region since the war between the US and Iran began.
The Hara forests lie in the Khuran Strait, which separates Qeshm Island from mainland Iran. This waterway is close to the Strait of Hormuz — one of the most strategically important marine corridors on Earth. The Strait of Hormuz is normally discussed through the vocabulary of geopolitics: barrels of oil, shipping lanes, energy prices and global trade.
But beneath that geopolitical map lies another map that receives far less attention. The Strait of Hormuz and its surrounding waters are home to mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds, fisheries and coastal communities. They also provide the seawater upon which some of the world’s most water-stressed societies depend.
Tick Populations Surge as the Climate Warms, and Farmers Bear the Brunt
Ticks are a daily, unsavory part of Jesse Warner’s life on Dirty Dog Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley. Warner raises grassfed beef and lamb on 1,000 acres and spends much of his day in pastures, moving around hundreds of animals to optimize their grazing.
Ticks bite him several times a week from May through November. Some days, he’s removed as many as 60 from each of his two working dogs. “It’s brutal out here,” he said. “You talk to other farmers, and they don’t talk about the weather anymore. They talk about how bad the ticks are that day.”
As the planet warms, tick populations, and the diseases they spread, are exploding. Nine species are linked to illness in the U.S. When ticks bite, they can transmit bacteria, viruses, and parasites that lead to debilitating illnesses like chronic Lyme disease or babesiosis. Some pass allergens that can trigger alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy that is sometimes fatal. Such tick-borne diseases have more than doubled in the U.S. in the past 15 years.
