Biden’s climate law is dead. The energy transition might not be.

Read the full story at Grist. See also: Bistline, J. E. T., Brown, M., Cui, R., Fawcett, A., Hess, H., Iyer, G., Kolus, H., Mahajan, M., O’Brien, D. J., Orvis, R., Pitman, K., Swanson, S., Venkatesh, A., & Zhao, A. (2026). Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act and One Big Beautiful Bill Act on the US energy system. Nature Reviews Clean Technology…

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The Pentagon is blocking more than 150 wind projects over drone fear

Read the full story at Grist. Wind turbines can confuse radar systems on ships and aircraft. Their massive rotating blades create a “blade flash” on radar screens, while their steel bases reflect electromagnetic waves, making it difficult to distinguish the turbines from aircraft or other objects. That’s a problem for the military, which relies on radar for threat detection and navigation.

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Q&A from the slop trenches

Read the full story at GeoSpatial ML. We reviewed 22 ML conference submissions this summer. Fifteen had fabricated citations, hallucinated authors, or clear LLM slop, so we complain about that a bit, and release the paper references audit we now run.

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How heat waves increase wildfire risk

A record-tying heat wave helped spread a wildfire in Northern California’s Shasta and Trinity counties in July 2018. Terray Sylvester/Getty Images by Dmitri Kalashnikov, University of California, Merced; Cong Yin, University of California, Merced; Madhulika Gurazada, University of California, Merced, and Mukesh Kumar, University of California, Merced When heat waves hit, the risk of wildfires can quick rise.

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Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts

Read the full story in Nature. See also: Duede, E., Gross, K., Crockett, M. J., & Bergstrom, C. (2026). The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science (Version 1). arXiv. Scientists who use large language models (LLMs) to help them with their research will spend less time refining their work and instead jump quickly to fresh projects, according to a modelling study…

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SpaceX is set to acquire 130,000 acres of marshland in southern Louisiana

Read the full story at Ars Technica. SpaceX and the state of Louisiana are close to finalizing a deal for the launch company to acquire about 130,000 acres along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. There have been persistent rumors about such an agreement for months, but now The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate reports that Louisiana Gov.

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These bees have nowhere to hide from extreme heat

Read the full story from Macquarie University. See also: Da Silva, C. R. B., Beaman, J. E., Dorey, J. B., Bradford, T., Smith, T. J., Gloag, R., & Kellermann, V. (2026). Nesting behaviour predicts heat tolerance evolution and climate vulnerability in bees. Nature Communications, 17(1), 4961.  A major study of Australian native bees found that stem-nesting species may be the first to feel the impact of climate change.

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Companies are struggling to integrate climate resilience enterprise-wide

Read the full story at ESG Dive. See also: Radulovic, V., Ide, T., Van Aken, T., Yang, D., & Ibsen, O. (2026). Climate resilience as strategy. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.  While companies are increasingly aware of physical climate risk, integration of climate resilience across corporate efforts is lacking, according to a new paper from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and Systemiq, a company focused on driving systems change.

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Environmental defenders remain among world’s most targeted activists

Read the full story at Grist. See also: Frontline Defenders. (2026). Global analysis 2205/26. Frontline Defenders. Environmental and Indigenous rights defenders remained among the world’s most targeted human rights advocates in 2025, despite landmark rulings by international courts affirming governments’ obligations to protect both the environment and those who defend it. At least 358 human rights defenders were killed last year, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based group that provides support for global human rights activists.

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Researchers identify thousands more Iowa livestock facilities than state database shows

Read the full story at Investigate Midwest. State records list roughly 11,000 regulated animal feeding operations. A yearlong effort using federal aerial imagery, satellite analysis and state records found more than 15,000 livestock facilities, revealing a larger industrial footprint and raising new questions about how Iowa tracks manure, pollution and oversight.

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Energy costs are high and unaffordable – what utilities, governments, communities and you can do to help save consumers money

There are a few ways to get help in handling high energy costs. Carme Parramon/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images by Sanya Carley, University of Pennsylvania; Alexandra Klass, University of Michigan; Alison L. Knasin, University of Pennsylvania; David Konisky, Indiana University, and Shelley Welton, University of Pennsylvania For many Americans, energy bills are becoming…

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Illinois study explores feasibility of creating sustainable jet fuel from food waste

Read the full story from the University of Illinois. See also: Si, B., Wang, Z., Watson, J., Summers, S., Li, Y., Yu, S., Yang, H., Yang, Z., Heyne, J. S., Jiang, J., Ren, Z. J., Ma, H., Wang, C., Wang, P., & Zhang, Y. (2026). A circular hydrothermal refinery for sustainable aviation fuel from food waste. Nature Sustainability.

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Community solar needs space to grow. Warehouse rooftops have lots of it.

Read the full story at Canary Media. Industrial buildings could host gigawatts of shared solar to deliver low-cost power to underserved urban communities — if states and utilities allow it to scale up.

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The hidden toll of wood pellet power

Read the full story at Grist. Though marketed as clean energy, industrial pellet plants are driving deforestation, worsening floods, and polluting rural counties.

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New AI agent tallies a gadget’s emissions in the time it takes to brew tea

Read the full story in Anthropocene Magazine. See also: Zhang, Z., Metzger, A., Mei, Y., Hähnlein, F., Englhardt, Z., Cheng, T., Abowd, G. D., Patel, S., Schulz, A., & Iyer, V. (2026). Sustainability assessment using multimodal artificial intelligence agents. Nature Electronics, 9(7), 825–837.  Researchers have constructed a pair of AI agents that can calculate the carbon footprint of an electronic device in no more time and while generating no more emissions than brewing a cup of tea.

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From pet to pest, goldfish can wreck entire ecosystems

Read the full story from the University of Toledo. See also: Hintz, W. D., Barrett, H., & Relyea, R. A. (2026). Invasive goldfish trigger a regime shift in experimental lake ecosystems of varying trophic state. Journal of Animal Ecology, 1365-2656.70259.  A new study reveals that goldfish can do far more than survive in the wild—they can fundamentally reshape freshwater ecosystems. Researchers found they cloud water, damage food webs, and hurt native fish populations, sometimes triggering major ecological shifts.

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A potent weedkiller can drift for miles, killing crops and trees. EPA’s new rules may not stop it

Read the full story from Illinois Public Media. See also: Erndt-Pitcher, K., & Kemper, M. (2024). Hidden in plain sight: Herbicide drift and chemical trespass: A summary of 6 years of monitoring and tissue analysis. Prairie Rivers Network. About 50 miles southeast of St. Louis, in the small town of Tilden, Illinois, the leaves on the burr oak trees looked odd earlier this spring.

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How Trump’s “America First” administration could shut U.S. scientists out of the next Nobel-worthy discovery

Read the full story at ProPublica. A proposed White House rule would give political appointees unprecedented control over scientific funding. One physicist, who helped discover the Higgs boson, explains how the rule would’ve stifled that breakthrough.

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The EU’s Right to Repair directive kicked in on July 31

Read the full story at Engadget. July 31, 2026 marks the start of a new era for the Right to Repair movement, at least for citizens in the European Union. It's the deadline for when the bloc's directive on repairs goes live for its 27 member nations. And while today is more of a political and procedural milestone than a practical one, it opens the door for major changes in how people maintain their hardware. It's all part of the bloc's push for a fairer, and more sustainable economy.

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Google Earth risked ruin with retracted AI tool for making fake satellite pics

Read the full story at Ars Technica. Google briefly allowed anyone to create AI-modified versions of satellite imagery available in Google Earth—before quickly reversing its decision as people shared examples of AI-generated pictures that illustrated the potential for misinformation and disinformation. There is no shortage of generative AI tools that already allow people to create AI-modified images of real buildings and cities based on user prompts.

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Should you wash your prewashed lettuce? An infectious disease expert explains how to eat your greens safely during the cyclospora outbreak

Prewashed greens are extremely convenient, but whole heads of lettuce may be less risky during a cyclospora outbreak. CostaPPPR via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA by Lisa Cuchara, Quinnipiac University Salads – along with other fresh produce – are some of the healthiest foods you can eat. Leafy greens are rich in vitamins A, C and K, folate, potassium and magnesium…

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War‑induced fertilizer shortage may be reducing US soil and water pollution

A farmer in Michigan spreads liquid fertilizer on a field. Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images by Kimberly Van Meter, Penn State and Nandita Basu, University of Waterloo American farmers are expected to plant several million fewer acres of corn in 2026 than they did in 2025, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz throttles a key fertilizer trading corridor, along with the energy and raw materials needed to produce and transport fertilizer.

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Data centers are growing target of global climate-related legal cases, report finds

Read the full story in The Guardian. See also: Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ regulatory rollbacks fuel surge in protective climate lawsuits Setzer, J., Higham, C., & Chan, T. (2026). Global trends in climate change litigation: 2026 snapshot. London School of Economics Global School of Sustainability Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. The proliferation of datacentres and AI is increasingly at the forefront of environmental litigation around the world, from the US and UK to Chile to Ireland, a report has found.

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Data center fights pit social values, democracy and capitalism against each other

A sign in a small town in Kansas opposes a proposal for a data center nearby. Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images by Lauren Mullenbach, University of Michigan Data center projects continue to generate controversy around the country. In part, that’s because a variety of different groups have competing interests – some in favor of them, some opposed and others with no direct view on data centers themselves, but with concerns that relate to aspects of data center operations and effects.

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The National Climate Assessment is broken – appointing Matthew Wielicki to lead it won’t help

Days of heavy downpours flooded Frankfort, Ky., and other communities across the Midwest in spring 2025. Leandro Lozada/AFP via Getty Images by Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences In early July 2026, the Trump administration quietly tapped Matthew Wielicki to lead the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The move places a podcaster known for downplaying the threats of climate change – and importantly, someone who has…

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Future uncertain for Logan County data center

Read the full story in the Illinois Times. It appears there aren’t enough votes to approve a zoning and annexation request that would pave the way for construction of a $5 billion data center, but Hut 8 Corp.’s proposal remains pending in front of the Latham Village Board. Village officials said for several days that the Village Board was on track to consider the request at an Aug.

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AI firms are buying up old books because they are the last slop-free data left

Read the full story at The Next Web. AI has a pollution problem of its own making. So much of the web is now machine-written that models risk feeding on their own exhaust. One company thinks the antidote is sitting on a shelf: old, printed books, published before the chatbots arrived. 404 Media reported that ISBNdb now sources physical books in bulk for AI labs to scan into training data.

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ExxonMobil uses corporate arbitration system to challenge climate solution it promotes

Read the full story at Inside Climate News. ExxonMobil is striking back against a European Union climate rule built around carbon capture and storage, a technology the oil giant has promoted as a way to address global warming. The company’s affiliates filed a notice of dispute under the Energy Charter Treaty, according to the arbitration industry publication Investment Arbitration Reporter…

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FBI investigates as Michigan joins Minnesota in reporting cyberattacks on its water systems

Read the full story from the Associated Press. Michigan on Saturday joined Minnesota in reporting cyberattacks on nine of the state’s water systems but an official said all systems were operating “safely.” Earlier this week, authorities said cyberattacks targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota. The source of the attacks is being investigated, but they came amid warnings that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems.

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Major oil companies reap massive profits as US and Iran fighting drives energy prices higher

Read the full story from the Associated Press. American oil and gas giants raked in massive spring profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments and consumers around the world paid more for fuel and confronted shortages. The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas.

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