Climate change is already shaping what the future will look like and plunging the world into crisis. Cities are adapting to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, like superstorms and heatwaves. People are already battling more destructive wildfires, salvaging flooded homes, or migrating to escape sea level rise. Policies and economies are also changing as world leaders and businesses try to cut down global greenhouse gas emissions. How energy is produced is shifting, too — from fossil fuels to carbon-free renewable alternatives like solar and wind power. New technologies, from next-generation nuclear energy to devices that capture carbon from the atmosphere, are in development as potential solutions. The Verge is following it all as the world reckons with the climate crisis.
Emissions from nearly 6 million of its vehicles were about 10 percent higher on average than GM said they were on its greenhouse gas emission compliance reports, an EPA investigation found. GM will retire 50 million metric tons of carbon credits to make up for the excess tailpipe pollution. It’ll also pay $145.8 million in penalties.
[The Washington Post]
The Environmental Protection Agency updated its climate change indicators, a comprehensive report on extreme weather, shifting seasons, ocean impacts, and greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
Heatwave season is 46 days longer for Americans now than it was in the 1960s, for instance.
“The climate crisis is affecting every American right now and with increasing intensity,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in a press release.
What SCOTUS just did to broadband, the right to repair, the environment, and more
From net neutrality to H-1B tech workers to cellphone unlocking, much of tech policy revolves around the administrative state.
Supreme Court ruling kneecaps federal regulators
SCOTUS overrules Chevron deference, completely changing how environmental and consumer protections will be decided.
He says he had the best. He tried to roll back more than 100 environmental protections while in office. Is that what he’s bragging about in the debate?
The GOES-U satellite launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday.
It’s one of four National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites equipped with powerful new tools to monitor weather in space and on Earth. They’ll provide advanced imagery to inform forecasts, map lightning activity in real time, and detect solar flares.
How to make an EV tire that won’t pollute the environment
Tire pollution is becoming the front line of our next war on car emissions, and Enso is ahead of the curve.
Data centers already use a lot of water and electricity, and adding AI overviews to Google Search only makes those problems bigger.
AI uses “orders of magnitude more energy” than traditional search engines, Hugging Face researcher Sasha Luccioni tells Scientific American.
Correction: Apple’s AI emoji are generated on device, not in data centers.
[Scientific American]
What is ‘nature-based carbon removal’ and is it any better than carbon offsets?
Planting trees is a controversial way to fight climate change, but tech companies still rely on the strategy to meet sustainability goals.
Offsets are supposed to allow companies and consumers to cancel out some of their CO2 emissions — but are notorious for failing. Plant a tree to capture carbon, for example, and that tree could eventually release all the CO2 if it doesn’t survive for hundreds of years.
The Biden administration laid out new guidelines today aimed at making offsets work, although many environmental advocates are still skeptical.
KCCI reporter Zane Satre saw at least three 250-foot towers snapped by tornadoes, leaving some buckled and on fire. The Des Moines Register reports more than 35,000 people are without power, and the National Weather Service has a tornado watch in effect across most of the state until 9PM CT.
Microsoft’s AI obsession is jeopardizing its climate ambitions
After pledging to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, Microsoft’s climate pollution has grown by 30 percent as the company prioritizes AI.
AI, EVs, and Joe Biden’s push for domestic manufacturing are putting more pressure on aging power grids. The nation also needs double the transmission capacity to meet Biden’s goal of 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity.
To get more transmission lines up, FERC just overhauled rules for new projects — including a mandate that grid operators start anticipating energy needs at least 20 years in advance.
More residents across the US are asking that question about carbon dioxide, The Washington Post reports, as technologies that capture CO2 from smokestacks become more popular with companies that want to claim they’re fighting climate change. All that captured carbon dioxide has to go somewhere, and concerns are growing about the safety of new CO2 pipelines and underground storage wells.
[The Washington Post]
Universal could have pulled off one of the funniest bits possible by releasing Twisters — a movie about swirling vortexes of earth, wind, and fire — on September 21st. But film’s latest trailer is a reminder that studios hate fun, and Twisters is out July 19th.