AwareCA provides emergency maps and alerts like Watch Duty, but directly from public safety agencies. The LA Times reports the app addresses fire officials’ “uneasiness” with Watch Duty, with Cal Fire’s David Acuña saying, with AwareCA “you’re not relying on, ‘Well, what did I hear on that really static-y radio?’”
[Los Angeles Times]
Reuters reports that Finnish police said the criminal probe will look into “ambiguities and shortcomings in the drainage and water management at the construction site.” Google also reportedly cleared forests around the data center site near Muhos, Finland before completing required environmental impact assessments.
Industry has drained the state’s water reserves for decades. Data centers are the breaking point.
Some are even mad enough to vote for Democrats.
As expected, he made the announcement at a campaign rally in Texas on Tuesday. He claims the move will “unleash an estimated 210 million additional barrels of oil.” He’s rolling back Biden-era rules that were supposed to generate up to $98 billion in benefits by limiting climate and health risks.
Microsoft is expanding ‘biomimicry’ at its data centers as it faces more pushback from locals over construction, pollution, and noise.
The clean energy sector lost nearly 37,000 employees last year after Republicans cut funding and eliminated tax incentives for renewables, according to a recent report. And yet even after those losses, clean energy still employs 3.5 million workers compared to around 1.1 million people employed by oil, gas, and coal companies.
[E2 | Good for the Economy. Good for the Environment.]
Water from the Colorado River is getting scarce — and more expensive for everyone.
The iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are made with 50 percent renewables. Apple Watch, which Apple has had to stop describing as carbon neutral, reaches 100 percent renewable electricity. The company has a 2030 target for its suppliers to use “100 percent clean energy” for Apple production.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked to send tailpipe pollution policies to Congress to repeal. US District Judge Beryl Howell accused the EPA of “Orwellian doublethink.”
It says in a new report that global temperatures are probably going to climb 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages soon. We’ll have to cope with catastrophes the UN had previously hoped to avoid, like the “submersion of Small Island Developing States and low-lying coastal cities,” while continuing to cut down and capture CO2 emissions to prevent even worse damage.
Data center developers typically have to apply for permits to install generators that create local air pollution. The DataOne facility in New Jersey is the latest project accused of violating federal law by running on gas-fired generators without approval.
The company calls it the world’s first state-backed trial aimed at mitigating warming contrails across an entire flight corridor — specifically the eastern half of the North Atlantic corridor, which accounts for around 5 percent of global contrail warming.
Contrails (not to be confused with conspiracy theories about “chemtrails”) are a big problem for the planet because they trap heat, accounting for about 35 percent of aviation’s global warming impact. Google has been working with American Airlines to help pilots find more sustainable flight paths.
How you feel about AI’s energy use might change how you feel about computers entirely.
The annual Solar Car Challenge for high school students celebrates its 30th year anniversary with a high-stakes trek across Texas.
Every heat wave Europe is embroiled in an argument over whether more air conditioning would save lives or simply worsen the climate crisis. Energy-efficient cooling will help, but scientists are also hard at work on new types of coolant to end our reliance on refrigerants, often potent greenhouse gases in their own right.
Forget for a moment that it’s morally disgusting to let people bet on wildfires; people have already spent $1.2 million doing it. The real question is when someone will commit financially-motivated arson in order to win their bet — because unlike other major environmental events, massive fires are easy to create.
[High Country News]
