The new data center proposed for a quiet city about 115 miles east of San Diego came across people’s radars in different ways. For patrons of the deli on West Aten Road, it was the white “Not In My Backyard” signs jutting out of lawns. For local irrigation district workers,...
The ramifications of record-shattering heat on the West’s ecosystems
In March, a month traditionally known for heavy mountain snows and dreary lower-elevation weather, a heat wave settled across the West, shattering temperature records from Tucson, Arizona, to Casper, Wyoming. The heat wave’s intensity and early arrival shocked many climate scientists. “It is exceptionally difficult for the Earth system to produce...
While Zach Galifianakis finds peace in gardening, I’m at war with raccoons
I caught a raccoon almost literally red-handed the other day. The night before, it (and presumably the comrades in its pack, technically known as a “gaze” of raccoons, because sure why not) had assaulted my garden, digging holes willy-nilly and uprooting seedlings I’d just put in the ground. In my...
Two months in, the Iran war has changed the global energy system forever
For almost half a century, the vast majority of climate experts have agreed on a solution to global warming: stop burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. But despite the political efforts of governments across the world to promote replacing these fuels, fossil sources have remained a stubbornly...
The SEC tried to silence activist investors. Now they’re fighting back.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the Securities and Exchange Commission has made it harder for small and activist investors to raise concerns through the government filing system known as EDGAR. Now they’re pushing back with their own alternative platform, which they call the Proxy Open Exchange — or POE. ...
Can a carbon price lower power bills? Virginia is betting yes.
Abigail Spanberger won a landslide victory in the Virginia governor’s race last November with a platform that focused on reining in rising electricity costs. Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of artificial-intelligence data centers, and the state’s biggest utility is straining to meet an expected surge in power...
Indigenous peoples bear the brunt of climate change — and get almost none of the money to fight it
Billions of dollars have been pledged to fight the climate crisis, but almost none is reaching Indigenous peoples, even as world leaders credit them as essential to solving it. “From the Amazon to Australia, and Africa to the Arctic, you are the great guardians of nature, a living library of...
One night a year, humans command this march of frogs and salamanders
On a Tuesday night in April, beneath a sky mottled with clouds, a slick stretch of road in Cumberland, Maine, erupted in sound. It started with a few high-pitched chirps, like the coos of chicks. Within minutes, dozens, then hundreds more joined a chorus punctuated by low clucks. By the...
Trump’s plan for ultra-fast meat processing would be a disaster for workers and the environment
In February, the United States Department of Agriculture announced two proposed changes to federal rules governing the rate of production in meat processing plants — a move advocates say would endanger workers, public health, and the environment. One proposed amendment would raise the maximum line speeds in poultry slaughter from 140...
The huge, untapped potential of planting rooftop gardens in cities
The city has long been a beacon of opportunity, where folks flock to make it big. But metropolises the world over are wasting a major opportunity — many, many square feet of it: Flat rooftops are painted white, when really they should be green. Not, mind you, shades of mint...