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From Venice to the Iguazu Falls, an exhibition in London illustrates the hidden cost of our gadgets and devices
Artists have created visualisations of the impact of the climate crisis on some of the world’s most recognisable landscapes, in a project to highlight the environmental effects of tech consumption.
Venice in Italy, the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil, and the Seine River in Paris were among the locations used to explore to potential impacts of the climate crisis by the end of the century. The results are on display at an exhibition in London.
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In this week’s newsletter: from Google to Amazon to OpenAI, the economic and climate cost of datacenters continues to grow
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The headlong rush to build huge new datacenters, in order to support the growth of AI, is raising a number of concerns in the US – around the impact upon the climate crisis, water use and electricity bills. It’s also set to reshape American politics in potentially unusual ways.
Companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into new datacenters that will form the backbone to the surging use of AI by businesses and the public.
Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised
Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk
The plastic inside us: how microplastics may be reshaping our bodies and minds
Datacenter emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? | Isabel O’Brien
Power struggle: will Brazil’s booming datacentre industry leave ordinary people in the dark?
Revealed: Trump’s fossil-fuel donors to profit from datacenter boom and green rollbacks
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Exclusive: Document sets draft pledge for leaders gathering at climate summit to increase use of controversial fuels
Brazil will ask countries to quadruple the global use of “sustainable fuels”, including controversial biofuels, despite concerns from environmental experts, the Guardian has learned.
A leaked document seen by the Guardian sets out a draft pledge for world leaders gathering for the Cop30 climate conference next month in Brazil to increase the use of “sustainable fuels” – chiefly biofuels and biogas, but also hydrogen – in the next decade by four times compared with 2024 levels.
By 2030, biofuel crops would require land the size of France, which would make it equivalent to the sixth-largest country in terms of arable land use globally
A fifth of vegetable oil is used for cars rather than food.
That 3,000 litres of water are needed to drive 100km on biofuels.
That solar panels could create as much energy as biofuels while using just 3% as much land.
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Experts suggest replacing gas hobs with electric ones, saying it is a win–win for health and the climate
Air pollution from wood burning and gas cooking is massively costly to our healthcare systems and the economy. These are the conclusions of a peer-reviewed study from New Zealand that calculated the cost of hospital treatment, days off ill and early deaths from the air pollution produced by fireplaces, stoves, gas cooking and un-flued room heaters.
Indoor air pollution from New Zealand’s 523,000 wood burners was estimated to account for 446 hospital admissions for heart and lung problems, and 101 early deaths annually, in a country with a population of just over 5 million people. Breathing fumes from gas cooking indoors created more than 1,000 hospital admissions, 208 early deaths and more than 3,000 new cases of childhood asthma each year.
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Lobbyists attended 48% more meetings than Tories, as Labour accused of giving them ‘backstage pass’
Government ministers met representatives from the fossil fuel industry more than 500 times during their first year in power – equivalent to twice every working day, according to research.
The analysis found that fossil fuel lobbyists were present at 48% more ministerial meetings during Labour’s first year in power than under the Conservatives in 2023.
Ministers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) met fossil fuel lobbyists 274 times, with industry figures present at almost a quarter of meetings.
During the same period DESNZ ministers met trade union representatives 61 times.
Ed Miliband, the secretary for energy and climate change, met fossil fuel lobbyists 91 times – with a third of all his meetings attended by industry figures.
Three fossil fuel companies: BP, Shell and Equinor, met ministers 100 times between them.
Fossil fuel lobbyistsattended almost every government meeting about the energy profits levy, a temporary windfall tax on the “extraordinary profits” of North Sea oil and gas companies.
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County Roscommon, Ireland: As harvest comes to a close, I visit the National Famine Museum, an important place of myth-busting and memory
October, said the poet Dermot Healy, is “when memory / is released”. In bygone days, Ireland’s harvest season spanned between the ancient Celtic festivals of Lúnasa (1 August) and Samhain (1 November). But October was a vital month because, traditionally, this was when the potato crop was lifted out of the ground. But despite its deep association with the country, the potato was only introduced to Ireland during the 16th century. It then became a staple food thanks to its nutritional value and productivity – a single crop grown in a small plot of poor soil could feed a family for the better part of a year.
Strokestown House used to be the home of the local Anglo‑Irish landowner, whose tenant farmers relied on the potato crop. After a tour of the house, I walk to where a pasture’s broad sweep and mature trees betray its previous life as manicured parkland. While I watch the grazing cattle, a litany of potato varieties – kerr’s pink, golden wonder, maris piper – rises like an old chant in my mind. Yet until today’s tour, I’d never heard of the Irish lumper, the variety on which the 19th-century rural poor depended.
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Researchers on expedition to Dauan Island heard two distinct frog calls in the rain and ‘sure enough, they were species new to science’
Three new animal species – two frogs and a gecko – have been discovered on a remote island in Australia’s north.
The animals were found on Dauan Island, a 3 sq km island in the far northern Torres Strait that is dominated by boulder fields.
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Ten platypuses were reintroduced into Sydney’s Royal national park in 2023. This week, two new juveniles were discovered, leading one researcher to cry ‘Oh, give me a hug’
Hunting platypuses takes patience. On Thursday afternoon, I headed into the Royal national park, south of Sydney, with researchers who had reintroduced a small population of the elusive monotremes two years ago.
There was a big net and torches – and our dinner. It could be a long wait.
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With AI datacenters soaring power bills for households, a policy called ‘demand flexibility’ could help ease grid strain
A cheap, bipartisan tool could help the US meet increasing energy demand from AI datacenters while also easing soaring power bills for households, preventing deadly blackouts and helping the climate.
The policy solution, called “demand flexibility”, can be quickly deployed across the US. Demand flexibility essentially means rewarding customers for using less power during times of high demand, reducing strain on the grid or in some cases, selling energy they have captured by solar panels on their homes.
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As the US government shutdown enters its third week, concerns mount over how the nation’s public lands will fare
Cars and RVs surged into Yosemite national park throughout the weekend, as visitors from around the world came to enjoy the crisp autumn weather, undeterred by a lack of park services and the absence of rangers.
National parks have largely been kept open through the lapse in US federal funding that has left workers furloughed and resources for the parks system more scarce than usual. But as the US government shutdown enters its third week and legislators warn that their impasse could linger even longer than the one in Donald Trump’s first term – which currently holds the record at 35 days – concerns are mounting over how the nation’s treasured public lands will fare.
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