Nov. 19, 2025, 2 pm CTRegistration link This talk presents key findings from the 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, which reveals that U.S. data center energy use more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, primarily driven by the rapid adoption of GPU-accelerated servers for artificial intelligence. By 2023, data centers consumed 176 TWh, or 4.4% of total U.S.

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center's TAP group has published a manual for companies wanting to learn about using pollution prevention (P2) industrial assessments. It was developed as part of the EPA-funded Collaborative Training & Assessments in Pollution Prevention (CTAP2) project, which assists manufacturers in developing the skills needed to reap the rewards of incorporating sustainability into their business models.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. Liquor is just one of the markets needed for the cover crop and cereal grain to improve the health, water retention and carbon sequestration of soils, and keep them from blowing away.

Read the full story at Canary Media. From AI to Facebook to Google Maps, the nation’s demand for computing power is growing, with households in the U.S. now averaging a whopping 21 devices — think smartphones, TVs, and thermostats — all connected to the internet. That was one of many statistics lobbed at North Carolina utility regulators last week as they gathered to…

Read the full story at Grist. A coalition of 11 governors has threatened to withdraw from grid operator PJM.

Meltwater runs across the Greenland ice sheet in rivers. The ice sheet is already losing mass and could soon reach a tipping point. Maria-José Viñas/NASA by Alexandra A Phillips, University of California, Santa Barbara As the planet warms, it risks crossing catastrophic tipping points: thresholds where Earth systems, such as ice sheets and rain forests, change irreversibly over human lifetimes.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. The mine’s computers emitted a loud, persistent hum that has, for the time being, been silenced by litigation.

Read the full story from Oxford University Press USA. Tree swallows in polluted U.S. regions are accumulating high levels of “forever chemicals.” These durable pollutants, used in firefighting foams and consumer products, are found everywhere from soil to human blood. Surprisingly, researchers observed no significant impact on the birds’ reproduction, suggesting possible resilience in wild populations.

Read the full story at Grist. If you live in the U.S., you could be forgiven for thinking that renewable energy is on the outs. In July, Congress voted to rapidly phase out longstanding tax credit support for wind and solar power, and the Trump administration has taken seemingly every step in its power to halt the development of individual…

Read the full story at Grist. Thousands of miles from home, Chinese migrant workers run the nickel-processing plants that do the dirty work of the clean energy transition.

Read the full story in Chemistry World. The social media site Bluesky is emerging as a significant platform for science communication, with substantially higher levels of engagement and content originality than its rival platform, X. In the first large-scale analysis of science content on Bluesky, researchers at the University of Sheffield, UK, and Renmin University of China collected and analysed over 2.6 million Bluesky posts referencing more than 530,000 scholarly articles from between January 2023 and July 2025.

Read the full story in The Guardian. A new law in California will allow year-round killing of non-native swans starting next year – a move that some officials have said is essential to protect the state’s already diminished wetlands and native waterfowl, but which others have labeled as “inhumane”. Mute swans, which have been valued as ornamental birds, have rapidly expanded across California, where wildlife officials say they degrade habitats and aggressively displace native species.

Read the full story at Grist (from 2023 but worth reposting). With the holiday season fast approaching, parents around the world are deciding which new toys to purchase for their kids this year. Many will opt for classic favorites like Lego bricks, Mr. Potato Heads, Jenga sets, and Barbie dolls. Others will choose toys with more high-tech flair — like remote-controlled robotic dogs, light-up drones, or books that play animal sounds — for that tot who loves smashing buttons.

The Product Stewardship & EPR Matrix, maintained by the Retail Compliance Center, covers state extended producer responsibility (EPR) or product stewardship enacted laws that shifts responsibility to product manufacturers and distributors (i.e., producers) for certain products and materials at the end of life. In many cases, retailers can fall within the scope of an EPR law’s definition of “producers.” Product and material classes subject to EPR may include: appliances containing refrigerants, auto switches, batteries, carpet, cell phones, electronics, electric and hybrid vehicle batteries, fluorescent lighting, gas cylinders, mattresses, mercury thermostats and mercury-containing products, microbead-containing products, paint, packaging/printed material, pesticide containers, pharmaceuticals, and textiles.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. The Outer Banks of North Carolina attracts more than 5 million visitors annually who prize this 200-mile stretch of islands as a Southern beach paradise. But as storms pound coastlines and sea levels rise, the pristine ocean and sprawling beaches that drew so many people to this tourist hotspot could now undermine it.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. Year after year, the same 15 million acres across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are planted with corn. Each August, the fibrous green leaves in those fields reach eye level. And each November, the dusty stalks are razed to stumps. “Continuous corn,” as the growing strategy is called, allows farmers to profit from a steady demand for corn from the ethanol and livestock industries.

Read the full story at Floodlight. Arizona’s lax water laws let corporate farms pump unlimited groundwater to grow alfalfa for cattle overseas, even as local families spend their savings drilling new wells.

A herd of antelope graze near a giraffe in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Murat Ozgur Guvendik/Anadolu via Getty Images by Jessica Beaudette, Arizona State University Botswana’s fertile Okavango Delta is one of the last remaining high-biodiversity ecosystems in the world, home to cheetahs, African wild dogs, baobab trees, crocodiles, termites and owls that catch fish. Roughly the size of the state of Connecticut, the freshwater Okavango Delta opens into an enormous alluvial fan that stretches up to 5,800 square miles (15,000 square km) into the Kalahari Desert.

Read the full story at Grist. The Trump administration wasted no time in tapping individuals with ties to fossil fuel industries and right-wing think tanks funded by oil tycoons for key environmental and energy policy positions, according to a new report. Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project, two nonprofit organizations that monitor corporate influence in government, analyzed the backgrounds of 111 nominees and appointees to executive branch positions in agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) that chart environment and energy policy.

Read the full story at Knowable Magazine. A new technique for detecting unknown and unlooked-for chemicals is revealing dozens of contaminants in alligators, sea lions and condors

Read the full story at The New Lede. Children whose mothers lived near farms and fields treated with certain pesticides during pregnancy have a higher risk of a deadly cancer that is most commonly found in infants before their first birthday, according to a new study. The new study, published in the Environmental Research journal, found that pregnant women in California who lived near areas that were treated with insecticides — flonicamid, cypermethrin or permethrin — or a now-banned fungicide called benomyl were more likely to have babies that would suffer from neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve cells that is seldom diagnosed after the age of five.

Read the full story in The Guardian. Local non-profits and schools are helping students explore traditional practices paired with modern science to make food sovereignty a reality

Read the full story at Canary Media. Between 2025 and 2030, the world is expected to build nearly 4,600 gigawatts of renewables — almost double the amount built over the previous five-year period.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. From America Online to the rise of AI, Virginia has been good for an industry now transforming the economy and grid. Has the industry returned the favor?

Read the full story at Grist. Drought is set to pose a greater risk to the $4 trillion municipal bond market than floods, hurricanes, and wildfires combined.