#environmental-impact

#environmental-impact

Blumenthal wondered if we are on the verge of a new diagnostic category of chatbot overdependence syndrome' as we head into an age in which we become increasingly reliant on AI. When used judiciously, AI aids us, but it could have disastrous consequences if we become dependent on it and lose the capacity for ordinary functioning. AI can take you down a rabbit hole, but it can also support you and help you structure your thoughts, schedule stuff and get things done

"This is an absolutely momentous decision," said APRS director Dr Kat Jones, adding that the debate exposed a broader industry problem since both planning officials and councillors repeatedly questioned what qualifies as a "green datacenter."

A resident of an iconic brutalist estate in south-east London has launched legal proceedings in the hope of halting his home's demolition. Bexley Council rubber stamped the plans in December, and this will allow housing association Peabody to demolish the 1960s estate and build up to 1,950 new homes. However, Lesnes resident Adam Turk has lodged a claim for a judicial review of the decision. Mr Turk is a social tenant who has lived on the estate since 2009. He has instructed the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) to lodge a claim against Bexley Council on his behalf, challenging the approval made by the council on December 23, 2025.

For someone aiming to end the global livestock industry, Bruce Friedrich begins his new book called Meat in disarming fashion: I'm not here to tell anyone what to eat. You won't find vegetarian or vegan recipes in this book, and you won't find a single sentence attempting to convince you to eat differently. This book isn't about policing your plate.

Analysis by Clean Cities of Department for Transport data has found that registrations of the most commonly sold pickup trucks have risen by 92% in just over a decade, with close to 600,000 (590,587) now on UK roads, compared with 308,103 in 2014. This is a particular problem in urban areas, where the vehicles are not suited to narrow streets, pavements and school environments.

The British government has conceded it should not have approved a campus near London's M25 orbital motorway and that the decision should be quashed, following a legal challenge by campaign group Foxglove. The non-profit filed its challenge last year after the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government overturned Buckinghamshire Council's rejection of the Woodlands Park site near Iver. The local authority had blocked the project on grounds it would significantly alter the area's character and appearance.

From greater flexibility to a sense of ownership and the hope of financial gain, solopreneurship feels like the new American dream. However, there's a hidden cost to that dream that has nothing to do with the unending hustle that comes with being both a business owner and that business's sole employee. It's the undeniable cost to the planet. In 2025, about 41 million businesses in the U.S. were run by a sole individual who is both its owner and only employee.

You might already be aware of what Monitor Point could entail, but we'll give you a refresher just in case: developers plan to construct two new massive residential towers on the Bushwick Inlet, leasing the land from the MTA. Some local residents fear that more high-rise housing will drive up rents and damage the inlet's ecosystem. The project's supporters say that the housing, some of it permanently affordable, is needed to keep up with the high demand

A look at how economic globalization has left its mark on former industrial cities and struggling small towns across America by photographer Matthew Ludak. Ludak received his BA from Drew University and MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His practice explores contemporary social issues, including classism, de-industrialization, environmentalism, and structural racism in the United States. He currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he continues to explore the intersections of art and social justice through his photography and non profit work.

According to the Dec. 31 announcement, Boston will receive nearly $48 million over 15 years, Jon Chesto of The Boston Globe first reported. The funds will go toward improving infrastructure around the Charlestown neighborhood, which is expected to bear the brunt of the traffic and crowds coming to the stadium. In addition, Boston will earn $1 per soccer ticket sold and 1.5% of concert ticket sales, for an estimated $2 million a year in ticket fees.

If a company sells a thing, it's probably packaged in plastic. Plastic is made from oil, and oil production releases emissions that warm the planet. If that thing is bought online, it's put on a plane or a train or a truck that usually uses oil-based fuel. If you buy a thing and return it, it goes through most or all of that all over again.

Of the ten richest men in the world on Forbes' December 2025 list, only two didn't build their fortunes by running or founding a fully tech-driven company. They are the people who now shape how we think, how we have fun, how we vote, how the economy works, and ultimately whether the world moves forward or backward: Elon Musk (X), Larry Page (Alphabet), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sergey Brin (Alphabet), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), and Michael Dell (Dell).

Ten years ago, I walked the route of HS2, the 140-mile railway proposed to run from London to Birmingham, to discover what lay in its path. Nothing had actually been constructed of this, supposedly the first phase of a high-speed line going north. The only trace was the furtive ecological consultants mapping newts and bats and the train's looming presence in the minds of those who lived along the route.

We need to have a more mature relationship with risk. Projects often do not go ahead because of concerns about safety but often all you are doing is moving the risk somewhere else. He said the UK's risk aversion was demonstrated to him by a recent decision by London's royal parks to close during high winds. Instead of going for a walk through the park, [people] ended up walking around the edge of it instead, where there were often more trees.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over Google search results, transformed how we see em-dashes, run rampant on human mental health, and even led to new vocabulary with "AI slop," a term coined to describe meaningless content byproduct. The main entities excited about AI seem to be, by far, tech companies and CEOs. However, plenty of people are already sick of generative AI and the way it's wormed its way into our lives.

The worst places in the UK for litter-riden roads have been revealed in a new report by the AA. Experts at the motoring firm surveyed more than 11,000 drivers in the UK about how much rubbish they'd seen on roads and surrounding areas. Over half (55 per cent) said they'd noticed more than usual - while just six per cent said they had seen seen less. Sadly, the figure is up three per cent from May 2024 when 52 per cent of drivers said they regularly saw rubbish on UK streets.

Frank McCourt's proposed gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium hit what appears to be its most significant roadblock yet on Wednesday, when the Los Angeles City Council voted to urge Metro to kill the project. The resolution, approved by an 11-2 vote, is not in itself any kind of formal decision. It would not take effect unless Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass concurs, and Bass previously voted in favor of the project as a member of the Metro board.

Apple has created its new Apple TV+ streaming service introduction using entirely practical effects and in-camera techniques, drawing a sharp contrast with Coca-Cola's decision to produce its 2025 Christmas advertisement using artificial intelligence, according to Unilad Tech. What's happening? The tech company released behind-the-scenes footage showing how its creative team built and filmed the Apple TV+ logo sequence by hand rather than generating it digitally.

Every year, millions of crabs emerge from the forest and swarm across roads, streams, rocks, and beaches to reach the ocean, where each female can produce up to 100,000 eggs. The tiny baby crabs that survive take about nine days to march back inland to the safety of the plateau. While Google is seeking environmental approvals for its subsea cables, the timing could prove delicate for Christmas Island's most famous residents.

The architecture and construction sector currently accounts for the highest carbon emissions among all global industries. Architecture, which has evolved alongside humanity for over 10,000 years, entered the 20th century prioritizing efficiency and economy above all else, adopting concrete and steel as its near-exclusive materials. This pursuit of industrial optimization, while enabling rapid development, also detached architecture from its ecological roots and intensified the environmental burden of the built environment.

In July of this year, I flew 11,000 kilometers from Buenos Aires to take a course on artificial intelligence policy and law at the University of Leuven in Belgium, a vast neo-Gothic structure founded in 1425 where today, across its various campuses, 57,000 students study a wide variety of disciplines. Halfway through the class, the lecturer divided us into groups and gave us the assignment for a group exam: The environmental footprint is overrated.

His findings were interpreted by a group of artists for the show at the Last Shot Gallery. Maslin says the environmental impact of tech consumption is estimated to account for 6% of the human-driven climate crisis double that of the aviation industry. There is a lack of awareness that all the gadgets people are using and replacing are contributing to overconsumption, huge pollution and climate change, he said.

When the corroded pipeline burst in 2015, inky crude spread along the Southern California coast, becoming the state's worst oil spill in decades. More than 140,000 gallons (3,300 barrels) of oil gushed out, blackening beaches for 150 miles from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, polluting a biologically rich habitat for endangered whales and sea turtles, killing scores of pelicans, seals and dolphins, and decimating the fishing industry.

This month's multiple whammy of Friezes London and Masters, swiftly followed by Art Basel Paris, and accompanied by the inevitable plethora of adjacent events and satellite art fairs, is never good news for the environment. And in these twitchy times, when there is so much else kicking off-both economically and politically-across the globe, it is especially challenging to keep the attention of the art world on the ever-escalating climate and environmental crisis that faces us all.

Each minute, millions of teens scroll through videos on social media platforms. These platforms are designed to connect people, but their overuse among young users is leading to serious, unintended consequences. The impact of social media on teen mental health has received significant media attention. After Facebook became available to American college students, their rates of depression rose by 7% and anxiety by 20%.

At the sixth edition of the Aichi Triennale, which opened in Japan in September, wars and their effects loom large. The exhibition's title, A Time Between Ashes and Roses (until 30 November), comes from a line in a poem by the Syrian poet Adonis about the cycle of destruction and rebirth, observed through nature. It resonates throughout this year's event, where war, displacement, memory and the natural world are interwoven across venues in Aichi Prefecture, located to the west of Tokyo.