What climate tech should make this year's 10 Breakthrough Technologies list? (Quick, I'm on an editorial brain storming call and have no ideas of my own! 🙏)

I’ve spent more than a year reporting on how the fossil fuel industry has infiltrated academia over the last 30 years, shaping fundamental paradigms on how to address climate change. My first story in the new @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social series, “Carbon Captured”, is out today.

ProPublica@propublica.org · last mo.

NEW: This is the story of how one of the most influential climate papers in history came to exist thanks to one of the companies most responsible for causing the climate crisis — and one with a financial stake in the technologies described in the paper. w/ @drilledmedia.bsky.social

Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a relatively cheap and easy fix for climate change. But as researchers take a harder look at the nuts and bolts of the concept, they’re finding numerous uncertainties, missing machines, and big things that would still need to be built (like polar airports).

Hacking the atmosphere: Geoengineering gets a reality check

Researchers are starting to explore the tools and systems we need to develop to cool down the planet.

ter.li

More & more solar geoengineering research is moving beyond computer modeling, delving into the design & engineering work needed to develop aircraft, dispersion systems & more. Much of it is happening at @davidkeith.bsky.social's new group at the University of Chicago: Freebie link for my latest:

Hacking the atmosphere: Geoengineering gets a reality check

Researchers are starting to explore the tools and systems we need to develop to cool down the planet.

ter.li

Re: Patagonia v. Pattie Gonia I spoke with a trademark attorney and two scholars of Indigenous Patagonian history to understand both the legal and ethical question everyone is asking. The answers are way more complex than social media is making them out to be.

Can Patagonia© own Patagonia?

And more importantly, should it?

heated.world

Despite the growing hysteria over AI’s threat to white-collar jobs, there’s still scant evidence that the technology has had a large-scale impact on the labor market.

A reality check on the AI jobs hysteria

What do the numbers really say about the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market? The answer might surprise you.

technologyreview.com

I'm @ Google I/O in sunny Mountain View today, and I'll be sharing my thoughts here throughout the day. We're just over halfway through the keynote now, and one thing is already pretty obvious—Google isn't coming for Anthropic and OpenAI's shared agentic coding crown anytime soon

I'll be reporting on the Musk v. Altman trial at the Oakland courthouse for @technologyreview.com. I'm a lawyer who clerked for a federal judge in California, so follow me to unpack what's really happening in the courtroom! www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/27/1...

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are going to court over OpenAI’s future

Elon Musk says he’s suing to save the company’s mission. The case could have huge consequences for OpenAI and the AI race.

technologyreview.com

Thrilled that my first new short story in several years, "Constellations," about astronauts crashlanding on a distant planet, has been published by the @technologyreview.com. Acquiring editor Rachel Cortland. Art by Rogan Brown. Free link to avoid the paywall: ter.li/r3tbrsgr

So proud that @technologyreview.com has been shortlisted in the Reporting category in this year's National Magazine Awards! Kudos to @jamesodonnell.bsky.social and @caseycrownhart.bsky.social and everyone involved! (Shortlisted story below.) asme.memberclicks.net/national-mag...

A scoop: DHS is using AI video generators from Google and Adobe to make content shared with the public. It comes as workers in tech have put pressure on their employers to denounce the agency's activities. www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/29/1...

DHS is using Google and Adobe AI to make videos

Immigration agencies have been flooding social media with bizarre, seemingly AI-generated content. We now know more about what might be making it.

technologyreview.com

If there's an energy or climate star who you think should be on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list this year, please shoot me a DM. Please do not just @reply with their name or handle here (awkward).

Fascinating look at what's happening to early EVs coming off the roads by @caiwei.bsky.social

China figured out how to sell EVs. Now it has to bury their batteries.

As early electric cars age out, hundreds of thousands of used batteries are flooding the market, fueling a gray recycling economy even as Beijing and big manufacturers scramble to build a more orderly...

technologyreview.com

I did a lengthy interview with the CEO of Stardust, in which he walked back the solar geoengineering startup's testing and deployment plans a bit. The company also intends to release details about its proprietary particles early next year and expects to open a US office soon.

How one controversial startup hopes to cool the planet

And why many scientists are freaked out about the first serious for-profit company moving into the solar geoengineering field.

technologyreview.com

They’ve cost hundreds of billions of dollars so far, and require an incredible amount of energy to operate. @technologyreview.com reporter @caseycrownhart.bsky.social shares the latest news on the boom in data centers to power AI.

As Companies Build Data Centers For AI, Communities Push Back

A boom in construction of AI data centers is facing backlash over soaring electricity and water usage, and the resulting utility hikes.

buff.ly

In an op-ed for TR, @davidkeith.bsky.social & @danvisioni.bsky.social voice deep concerns about Stardust & other for-profits racing into solar geoengineering — and asserting claims that, they argue, the science doesn't support.

Why the for-profit race into solar geoengineering is bad for science and public trust

Two scientists argue that the growing commercial efforts to counter climate change by reflecting away sunlight will thwart responsible research in the field.

technologyreview.com

Wise words from Prof Andrew Dressler www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-mercha...

We've finally got some hard numbers on AI's energy demand from a major tech company: Google says a median prompt to Gemini uses 0.24 watt-hours of electricity. 🧵 @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1...

In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses

It’s the most transparent estimate yet from one of the big AI companies, and a long-awaited peek behind the curtain for researchers.

technologyreview.com

We've finally got some hard numbers on AI's energy demand from a major tech company: Google says a median prompt to Gemini uses 0.24 watt-hours of electricity. 🧵 @technologyreview.com www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1...

In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses

It’s the most transparent estimate yet from one of the big AI companies, and a long-awaited peek behind the curtain for researchers.

technologyreview.com

🚨 If you're interested in working on a coordinated response to the DOE climate report, please enter your info on this google form 🚨 Please RT this so as many people see it as possible. forms.gle/BL9xUAfRxA...

DOE climate report response form

We are collecting names to assemble a writing team to respond to the DOE climate working group report. If you'd like to contribute, enter your info below. At this point, there is no guarantee what we'll do (if anything), but we want to keep our options open by collecting names. If you have any further questions, feel free to email me. We are primarily looking for Ph.D. scientists at universities or government labs in appropriate fields. I realize that this will exclude some qualified people and I apologize, but we felt this was necessary for a variety of reasons.

forms.gle

The Data Foundation is fundraising for a new initiative that will coordinate efforts among nonprofits, experts & companies to modernize US greenhouse-gas measurements, striving to build on a Biden effort that Trump nullified on his first day in office.

How nonprofits and academia are stepping up to salvage US climate programs

The Data Foundation, the American Geophysical Union, and a coalition of universities are scrambling to ensure that the nation accurately assesses the growing dangers of global warming.

technologyreview.com

Sam Altman says an average query to ChatGPT uses about 0.34 watt hours of electricity in a new blog post. But I have some questions about this number (short 🧵) #energysky

I dug into the NSF cuts & other ways that the Trump administration is shutting down climate science. “Basically it’s a shit show,” Princeton’s Michael Oppenheimer says, “and how bad a shit show it is will depend a lot on what happens in the courts and Congress over the next few months.”

The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies

Tens of millions of dollars in NSF grants have been slashed, and scientists fear the US is about to lose a generation of climate researchers.

technologyreview.com

Our senior climate reporter @caseycrownhart.bsky.social will be live on @scifri.bsky.social at 2 p.m. EDT discussing our brand-new, first-of-its-kind look at AI’s energy use and climate impact. Explore the full package: www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/a...

Power Hungry

An unprecedented look at the state of AI’s energy and resource usage, where it is now, where it is headed in the years to come, and why we have to get it right.

technologyreview.com

We’re all talking about AI and energy demand, but there’s still a lot of question marks. So @jamesmodonnell.bsky.social and I got together and did some math. After six months of reporting, we found that AI's energy demand is anything but constant, and the common understanding is full of holes.

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.

The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.

technologyreview.com

In 2019 I was the first journalist to embed within OpenAI to profile them. Afterwards they refused to speak to me for 3 years. Here's the story of what happened, and Altman’s reaction, excerpted from my book EMPIRE OF AI about the company (out May 20). 1/ www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/19/1...

Inside the story that enraged OpenAI

In 2019, Karen Hao, a senior reporter with MIT Technology Review, pitched writing a story about a then little-known company, OpenAI. This is what happened next.

technologyreview.com

You know what time it is!!! (time to put cleaner shrimp on my second monitor so I don't feel like I'm fact checking by myself but am in fact working with small, very busy friends)

2 Hours of Cleaner Shrimp to Relax/Study | Lofi Hip Hop | Monterey Bay Aquarium Krill Waves Radio

YouTube video by Monterey Bay Aquarium

youtube.com

Sick of tariff news? I wrote about a chemical plant getting nuclear reactors! www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/09/1...

This Texas chemical plant could get its own nuclear reactors

Dow Chemical and X-energy are one step closer to bringing advanced nuclear technology to a chemical plant in Texas.

technologyreview.com

Some much-needed skepticism on the "dire wolves" conversation from @antonioregalado.bsky.social www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/08/1...

Game of clones: Colossal’s new wolves are cute, but are they dire?

Colossal Biosciences claims it has revived an extinct species, but scientists outside the company are skeptical.

technologyreview.com

Amazing when federal agencies suddenly have no communications staff. Love it when there is no way for the public to learn about the work of their government.