When the United States takes the pitch against Australia this afternoon, millions of soccer fans will tune in. Anyone who hasn’t watched a match since the last World Cup will notice something new: players stopping midway through each half to drink some water. Introduced in the name of player safety,...
Desperate for shade on your walk? There’s (almost) an app for that.
It’s getting increasingly unbearable, even downright dangerous, to walk in cities. That’s because of the urban heat island effect: Buildings, sidewalks, and roads absorb the sun’s energy and radiate it back at pedestrians, raising temperatures far above that you’d find in the surrounding countryside. If a city like Phoenix doesn’t...
A solution to data center backlash? Put them in oil fields.
Most Americans loathe data centers. Recent polling found that Democrats and Republicans alike would oppose having one in their neighborhood, and hundreds of communities across the country have fought against them, citing fears about noise, water contamination, and energy bills. After years spent courting tech companies, many politicians are now...
Georgia is losing farmland fast. Is a state conservation fund enough to save it?
Georgia’s legislature has allotted $2 million for the first year of the Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund. Farm landowners across the state have applied for a piece of that funding to protect their land from development — for housing, warehouses, data centers, and other uses. Applicants will find out in August...
Inside the government’s push to divert Puerto Rico solar funds to a bankrupt utility
When Congress approved a $1 billion Energy Resilience Fund for Puerto Rico in 2022, the money was desperately needed. Multiple hurricanes had battered the island’s notoriously fragile electric grid, and lawmakers envisioned the money supporting rooftop solar and battery systems that could provide resilient backup power during emergencies. The Biden...
The US military is spending big on critical minerals
This is an original story by Mongabay and is republished through the Indigenous News Alliance. Over the past decade, Department of Defense spending for critical minerals transformed from virtually nonexistent into a major spending area. The last five years in particular have seen a dramatic surge in both contracts and...
The ‘super El Niño’ is here. What happens next could upend food systems worldwide.
The oceanic phenomenon known as El Niño, which increases temperatures worldwide, has officially begun, according to U.S. weather forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meteorologists have warned that this could be the strongest El Niño this century. It is expected to drive extreme weather events around the world, including...
Even $75M from Trump may not save Oakland’s embattled coal terminal
When investor Phil Tagami first proposed building an export terminal in Oakland, California, more than a decade ago, he probably didn’t anticipate the firestorm of litigation and controversy that would follow, in a saga that has now spanned three presidential administrations. There were early rumors that the terminal would export...
Want a deal on a heat pump? Team up with your neighbors.
Last year, Marie Tai needed a better way to keep her condo cool. Her window air-conditioning units were borderline ineffective, even running at full blast. Summers have been getting more intense in Tai’s Boston neighborhood because of a rapidly warming climate, and she had just adopted a 16-year-old cat named Mittens, who was...
‘Every day it’s more barriers’: how the US is shutting out climate refugees
Millions of people around the world are having their lives upended by floods, storms and heatwaves worsened by the climate crisis. Those forced to flee their home countries, however, are finding that the door to the US is more firmly shut than ever. Neither US nor international law recognizes environmental hazards,...