The AI datacenter buildout is huge compared to past projects like the interstate highway system, the Apollo program, and the US railroad boom. But its still modest compared to global clean energy investment or oil and gas investment:
This village uses its solar income on free communal lunches, buses and other communal efforts.“If you divide money as individual income, people feel disconnected. People who didn’t know each other for years now get to know each other within days”
I love everything about this.
France passed a law requiring solar panels on every parking lot with more than 80 spaces.
Equals 10 nuclear reactors
Reduces heat island, shades cars
The US -- 800 million parking spaces. Most of them are uncovered asphalt sitting in direct sunlight.
Why aren't we doing this?
I had a rare opportunity to visit the Choinumni Burial Grounds in with the spitfire Indigenous historian and activist who is working to keep her people connected to their traditional ways for @marigoldsociety.bsky.social.
marigoldsociety.substack.com/p/our-only-l...
The latest research on the current system in the Atlantic is, for lack of a better word, scary.
"The most dramatic and drastic climate changes we see in the last 100,000 years of Earth history have been when the Amoc switched to a different state."
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Update: The US Auto industry has retreated from EVs. That strategy will relegate them to the domestic market only or to extinction. The world is shifting to EVs. Global sales of fully internal combustion engine vehicles peaked in 2017. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋 Paywalled link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
2026 may be one of the river’s driest years yet, and that "could spell disaster for Imperial County," which produces vast quantities of produce for the rest of the country and provides work for a sizable Latinx community.
capitalandmain.com/a-drying-col...
Map depicting ECMWF ensemble predicted temperature anomalies for mid-April across the American West. Widespread anomalous warmth is again depicted, with some regions again more than 10-15 degrees F above seasonal norms.
After this cooler & wetter interlude, there are once again strong signals than anomalous April warmth will dominate the West for much of rest of April. It won't be as extreme as March, relatively speaking, but return of warmth & dryness will likely allow rapid snowmelt to resume.
This is serious.
It’s a long process with a lot of uncertainty. Mr. Christman estimates that the 25,000 eggs he planted that March day will produce 10,000 juvenile fish. Of these, one adult might return in the summer of 2029 or 2030. In all, the 495,000 eggs he and his colleagues planted this year could lead to the return of just about 20 adults.
One adult salmon.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/s...
1/ My first story as a @propublica.org climate reporter:
I discovered that the Trump appointee in charge of rewriting methane rules at the EPA was – just four years ago – an unnamed author of an oil industry response to those same rules.
His name isn't in the document itself, but…
I wrote about George Saunders' latest novel, Vigil, and about the larger tendency to skip ahead to worst-case scenario in modern climate fiction.
This is fascinating!
Desenho a caneta azul em fundo branco. Escrito "awake" com silhueta de uma pessoa em pé desenhada grosseiramente. A parte da cintura para baixo está pintada de vermelho e uma seta aponta "anxiety" enquanto outra diz "deep down". Logo abaixo um desenho com escrito "trying to sleep:" e uma silhueta também grosseiramente desenhada, dessa vez já horizontal, deitada, tem a metade de baixo, da cabeça aos pés, em vermelho. Uma seta aponta para a cabeça com só dizeres "it's in ur brain now"
É incrível como a noite os problemas ficam maiores né. Realmente é assim que funciona.
“This is the first oil shock in history where oil faces a superior alternative. Solar, wind and EV are cheaper, local, faster to deploy, and huge,” he said. “They were winning even before the crisis, and this just galvanizes change.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Map of stations around the US experiencing record temperatures for March 20th. The locations expand from the west coast to the Mississippi River valley
Look at all the locations experiencing record temperatures today! From the West Coast to the Mississippi River Valley…
Source: coolwx.com/record
Super pleased to share our final paper for our research project about documenting impacts of Indigenous-led renewable energy projects
theconversation.com/indigenous-l...
Grateful to Ian Munroe to getting this explainer published! @theconversation.com
AP is much better. "Unlike during previous oil shocks, renewable power is now competitive with fossil fuels in many places. More than 90% of new renewable power projects worldwide in 2024 were cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives..."
“Climate scientists at World Weather Attribution published an analysis Friday that found this heat wave would be ‘virtually impossible for this time of year in a world without human-induced climate change.’”
There's also a very real possibility that Wahiawā dam could give way, threatening the lives of thousands. Dole — the pineapple producer — hasn't brought the dam up to modern safety standards.
www.civilbeat.org/2026/03/were...
Another round of life-threatening flooding is taking place this morning in Hawaiʻi — on the low-lying areas of the North Shore of Oʻahu. www.civilbeat.org/2026/03/cata... #climate
A whole thread of vintage transportation materials that also reveal a history of design
Cc @loriemerson.net b/c networks
This heartbreaking story, about the effects of family separation, was written by our very own @tinavasquez.bsky.social. We recommend that you read it:
"After being held in isolation for about five days. Rodríguez was forced to strip naked in a shower while an officer "poured some kind of chemical liquid on her head, which seemed to be something used to clean floors and burned her eyes,” the filing read."
This figure from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's last report puts climate change in perspective. We are changing the climate faster than any point in modern human experience, such that the planet is now warmer than at any time in the history of human civilization.
El Niño Watch issued today by NOAA. Looks like record global temps in 2027 (and maybe even 2026) are virtually a lock, based on the strong likelihood of a potent 2026-27 event.
"Researchers on an aerial survey with the Center for Coastal Studies saw two mother whales and their calves in the middle of Cape Cod Bay...on their way to join at least 40 other right whales "deep diving" for food in the southwest corner of the bay, the center said." www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/...
Take a break from human folly; watch rocks being born in a fiery red fountain from the very bowels of the earth.
If only there was a fast-scaling source of energy that can power cars without oil, is by nature distributed and doesn't need to be imported over and over again every time you want it...