Environment

Environment

Datacentres are consuming 6% of electricity in the UK and US, with the growing strain of AI on energy supplies prompting community resistance, according to research. The proportion of electricity used by vast warehouses stacked with microchips to power AI and the internet has risen 15% worldwide in the past two years as annual global investment in datacentres approaches $1tn (740bn) nearly 1% of the global economy, according to the International Data Center Association (IDCA).

These are some of the things we can see in data from electricity grid provider UK Power Networks (UKPN), which provides electricity utilisation rates taken half hourly for 96 datacentre sites within its region. This stretches from the datacentre hotspots of west London and Docklands, south-eastwards to Kent, Surrey and Sussex, and includes all of Essex and East Anglia.

At the end of a dirt road along the northeastern edge of Montana's Crazy Mountains, a simple sign warns visitors they are now entering private property. For fifth-generation Montanan Brad Wilson, the notice marks a defeat with implications far beyond the Crazies. "The fate of our public lands and our rights are in jeopardy right now," Wilson told Floodlight.

As the unforgiving summer heat soared above 40C, she had walked for miles, piling the sticks and fallen branches into a bundle on her head while sweat ran down her face. Just a few weeks ago, the 35-year-old had been preparing meals for her four children on a small gas stove with little fuss. But as the crisis in the Middle East has choked India's vital supplies of imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used by more than 60% of the country's population for cooking refills have been scarce and prices have risen far beyond what is widely affordable.

Residents in parts of Arizona, Texas and California have been warned by the National Weather Service (NWS) to limit outdoor activity and take precautions as dangerous ozone pollution spreads across heavily populated regions.

Home to 15.4 million people and more than a dozen of America's elite colleges, New England has not experienced a catastrophic hurricane since 1991, Hurricane Bob.

Whales are increasingly exposed to traffic and ship strikes. The United States-Israel war on Iran has disrupted global supplies of energy, fertilisers, medicines and even helium, devastating economies around the world. Now it's also threatening whales off the coast of South Africa.

Most well-known people who talk about climate change are in North America and Europe, says Kenyan rugby sevens star Kevin Wekesa, but for us this is a very relevant conversation. It is not only about future tournaments or big international pledges. In Kenya, we see the effects in rising heat, cracked pitches and changing weather in communities where young athletes are growing up.

Sand is sometimes referred to as the unrecognised hero of development, but its essential role in sustaining the natural services on which we depend is even more overlooked. Sand is our first line of defence against sea level rise, storm surges, and salination of coastal aquifers all hazards exacerbated by climate change. The most extracted solid material on Earth, sand is mined to build homes, roads and sea walls in concrete production, building foundations and masonry work.

Chevron spokesperson Paula Beasley told WIRED in an email that all tax incentives under consideration for the Energy Forge project "apply solely to the power generation facility" to "support new energy infrastructure, and do not extend to any future data center facilities that may be served." Beasley also said that there is currently "no definitive agreement" with Microsoft for this power plant.

Ray Valley Solar, south of Bicester in Oxfordshire, generates enough clean electricity to power about 7,000 homes for a year, and uses its profits to provide grants to community initiatives that help reduce carbon emissions and make homes, schools and businesses across Oxfordshire more energy efficient.

People say you shouldn't be interfering with the river; the outcome if we don't is worse. It has been intervened in so much at this point, you have to keep intervening. Fred Brooks, a river engineer with the local regional council, Environment Canterbury, explains the paradox of managing the Waimakariri River, highlighting how past interventions have created dependency on continued management.

The main finding is that pollution and climate change together are now the biggest single cause of biodiversity loss. The chemicals at the heart of this problem-phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS, and microplastics-are lowering fertility and reproductive success in many species, including humans.

The Federal Reserve has delivered a cumulative 75‑basis‑point reduction since late 2025, bringing the upper bound of the target range to 3.75%. Cheaper capital than a year ago, expensive fossil fuels, and a new structural buyer of clean megawatts form the combination these three ETFs are built to capture.

Electrocaloric effects are typically observed near and above room temperature because most ferroelectrics have relatively high Curie temperatures. However, cooling through room temperature remains elusive, despite its importance for various applications.

Taiwan relies on imported fossil fuels to meet nearly 97 percent of its overall energy needs, including electricity, transport, and heating, according to the Global Taiwan Institute.

"The amount of work that needs to be done pre-development is a long lead time, and the projects are going to take longer to develop than this current administration, and they will last far longer than this current administration."

"We're moving to what's called the 90th percentile, meaning the center should only move outside that cone one tenth of the time, or 10% of the time. So there's less of a chance that the center will move outside of that new experimental cone."