“for every 1°C rise in global temperature, the water vapour held in the atmosphere increases by 7%…. This increased water vapour in the air means…more evaporation from the seas & soils, leading to more intense droughts & dry spells; & more intense rainfall”

Tim Smedley@timsmedley.bsky.social · 3d ago

If you're wondering why we keep lurching from "the longest ever wet period" to "longest ever dry period", then (wherever you are in the world) this article explains it: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/enviro...

I'm not saying that anyone ever sat down and said, "Parents with sick children will pay whatever we charge for a thermometer at 2AM." They didn't have to: this is the kind of thing an automated system can do without any human intervention: www.ftc.gov/system/files... 15/

Alberta’s Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish, recently stated that he views “data centers as digital pipelines and digital refineries for us to help get the value from our natural gas to global markets.” www.desmog.com/2026/07/23/a...

‘Absurdly High’: Alberta Considering Almost 21 GW of Gas-Powered Data Centres

Expert warns that would require 200 billion litres of water and explode Canada’s emissions.

desmog.com

Really interesting story here. You know how the hyperscaler cowboys are powering their data centers with gas turbines? It turns out the demands of AI are not very friendly to those turbines. They're supposed to last 5+ years & instead they're wearing out in under 12 months!

Harriet Weber@harri.bsky.social · 7d ago

Here's the deal with the pre-review study Tesla funded on turbine carnage. This is my first piece on the Data Centers Breaking Things beat. TLDR; AI training is wearing out, even breaking, a critical source of energy for AI training www.investors.com/news/turbine...

Don't use AI in your writing. Just don't. 🤖🫧💥 www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

AI altering meaning of users’ drafts on issues from abortion to climate, study finds

Researchers say small changes in drafting could spread rapidly and create long-term shifts in public opinion

theguardian.com

Correct your priors: Private money is going after clean energy, governments are using public money to prop up fossil fuels "About 59% of all money spent on the fossil fuel system came from taxpayers in 2015. By 2025, that climbed to 68% and spiked at 78% in 2022." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Who’s Really Keeping Fossil Fuels Alive? Taxpayers

To judge by the way many people discuss the energy transition, we’re engaged in a fight between green idealogues in government and academia on the one hand, and a more realistic private sector that re...

bloomberg.com

A man whose Tesla crashed into a house last month in Texas and killed a woman while he was using its autopilot function has been charged with manslaughter, court records show.

Tesla Driver Using Autopilot in Texas Crash Is Charged With Manslaughter

A front-door video camera of the crash, which killed a woman inside her home, showed the Tesla plowing into a house through its driveway.

nyti.ms

If you are wondering where the smoke is coming from: 🇨🇦’s boreal forest is on fire - from coast to coast to coast.

Extreme heat is no longer merely a short-term weather problem, but an economic shock. >30C, productivity drops by 3%/degree, energy costs rise 1.2%/degree, people work more slowly w/more mistakes, sick leave rises by 3.5% when T>30C, and by 6% during prolonged heatwaves. www.dw.com/en/climate-c...

Climate change: Heatwave costs the German economy billions

Never before has a June been as hot in Germany as in 2026. This has consequences not only for people and nature, but also for businesses. Heat reduces productivity and causes illness, while cooling is...

dw.com

Oh, wow, you don’t sayyyyyyyyy

Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last mo.

Ford has rehired hundreds of senior engineers after replacing them with AI backfired and has cost the company billions of dollars. AI adoption is blamed for Ford being the most recalled automaker in the U.S. with 51 recalls covering over 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.

The two Beznau nuclear reactors in Switzerland which are cooled by water from the river Aare, have been taken off grid due to the water overheating. www.swissinfo.ch/eng/energy-t...

Swiss nuclear power station shut down as river warms

Beznau nuclear reactors taken off grid due to river water overheating.

swissinfo.ch

I especially love this diagram.

Any attempt to save kids from online harms should start with saving kids from online *surveillance*, but that's the *opposite* of what we're doing today. 19/

Actually existing AI used in a military capacity going about as well as you'd expect it (aka, attacking an ally, causing their government to collapse)

Doug Saunders@dougsaunders.bsky.social · 3mo ago

There's so much going on in this story www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

Grid-scale batteries are going in an absolutely wild pace. Every whingey objection to renewables you've ever heard is basically solved by batteries. This is happening whether any of the hopeless dipshits running the US want it or not.

The world is installing grid batteries at a blistering pace

A total of 112 gigawatts of batteries were deployed around the world in 2025 — 10 times the amount added just four years prior.

canarymedia.com

Leaked SaskPower documents show 'extreme' risk in $26B coal refurbishment plan www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Leaked SaskPower documents show 'extreme' risk in $26B coal refurbishment plan | CBC News

Documents predict the provincial government's coal refurbishment plan would increase the average cost of electricity by 95 per cent by 2040.

cbc.ca

I honestly do not understand how you make the country strong by selling critical infrastructure

Toronto Star@thestar.com · 3mo ago

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is looking at offering Canadian sea ports for sale. Read more from Star Ottawa Bureau Chief Tonda MacCharles:

Important new information on who knew what when. substack.com/@jengerson/n...

SCOOP: Jen Gerson: Elections Alberta's massive failure could have put people in danger. I tried to warn them.

The most unhinged people in the province may now have access to the personal information of everybody who lives here, and there's nothing we can do about it

substack.com

Trump’s Dreams for a Battleship Led to His Navy Secretary’s Ouster www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/u...

Trump’s Dreams for a Battleship Led to His Navy Secretary’s Ouster

nytimes.com

1. Amazon has built powerful pricing algorithms that have learned how to steer prices upward — not just on Amazon, but across the web. I have a new piece on how these algorithms work, and how they help sustain Amazon’s monopoly.

How Amazon’s AI Algorithms Raise the Prices You Pay

Amazon can steer market-wide prices without ever colluding—exposing a gap in antitrust law that the FTC is now fighting to close.

washingtonmonthly.com

Work in progress: sars-2 clearly increases risk of tuberculosis activation in central Ontario, on a timeline that is consistent with T cell injury. It does not impact risk of non tuberculous mycobacterial infections More follows

“One of the more pronounced features of the Gaza doctrine," writes Neve Gordon, ”is turning life-saving medical sites like hospitals, health clinics, and ambulances into targets.”

The Gaza Doctrine | Neve Gordon

On Friday, March 13, nearly two weeks into the Lebanese front of “Operation Roaring Lion,” Israeli forces bombed Burj Qalaouiyah, a village in the

nybooks.com

There is no solar power crisis. No wind power crisis. No insulation crisis. No heat pump crisis. No e-bike crisis. No electric bus crisis. But there is a #fossilfuel crisis. And a #climatecrisis.

Wolfgang Blau@wblau.bsky.social · 5mo ago

We should reconsider the term „energy crisis“ when speaking about the effects of the Iran war. This is very specifically a crisis of fossil fuels and their single point of failure. Fossil fuels are no longer synonymous with „energy“. We have other, better options.

Everything we need to do to stop climate breakdown, we also need to do for national security. Energy saving, more renewables, more electricity storage and interconnectors, electrification of transport, heating, cooking and industrial processes, plant-based diets. We win on all fronts.

Y’all. 🎪 www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/u...

A friend sent me this, posted on the other site. Link to the paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @fitterhappieraj.bsky.social

From the Anthropic CEO

David Burbach 🇺🇸@dburbach.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Mass domestic surveillance is bad but in particular why does * DOD * need that capability -- what mission and lawful authority?

No more a pathway to net zero. now just an Oil Sands lobbying group. Surprise! (not surprised)

Group behind Pathways carbon-capture project changes name to Oil Sands Alliance

President Kendall Dilling says work has always had a much broader focus

theglobeandmail.com

what even is the fucking point

Ian Bogost@ibogost.com · 5mo ago

Is this bad

“Cognitive psychology has shown that students grow intellectually through doing the work of drafting, revising, failing, trying again, grappling with confusion, and revising weak arguments. This is the work of learning how to learn” phys.org/news/2026-02...

The greatest risk of AI in higher education isn't cheating—it's the erosion of learning itself

Public debate about artificial intelligence in higher education has largely orbited a familiar worry: cheating. Will students use chatbots to write essays? Can instructors tell? Should universities ba...

phys.org