Washington Post [unpaywalled]: AI bots generate a lot of heat, and keeping their computer servers running exacts a toll. Roughly a quarter of Americans have used ChatGPT since the chatbot’s 2022 release, according to the Pew Research Center — and every query exacts a cost. Chatbots use an immense amount of power to respond to… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Energy
Selling a Mirage – The world is drowning in plastic
ProPublica: “Last year, I became obsessed with a plastic cup. It was a small container that held diced fruit, the type thrown into lunch boxes. And it was the first product I’d seen born of what’s being touted as a cure for a crisis. Plastic doesn’t break down in nature. If you turned all of… Continue Reading
These Household Brands Want to Redefine What Counts as “Recyclable”
ProPublica:”Most of the products in the typical kitchen use plastics that are virtually impossible to recycle. The film that acts as a lid on Dole Sunshine fruit bowls, the rings securing jars of McCormick dried herbs, the straws attached to Juicy Juice boxes, the bags that hold Cheez-Its and Cheerios — they’re all destined for… Continue Reading
On Slicks and Satellites: An Open Source Guide to Marine Oil Spill Detection
Bellingcat: “Almost every week, oil spills are reported somewhere in the world. From ships dumping contaminating ballast water or breaking down on coral reefs, to direct attacks on oil pipelines and tankers. The larger the spill, the bigger the media attention. This year alone, off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, a Bellingcat investigation found… Continue Reading
The world is pumping out 57 million tons of plastic pollution a year
“A new study from the University shines a light on the enormous scale of uncollected rubbish and open burning of plastic waste in the first ever global plastics pollution inventory. Researchers used A.I. to model waste management in more than 50,000 municipalities around the world. This model allowed the team to predict how much waste… Continue Reading
Advanced Recycling: Does Big Plastic’s Idea Work?
CBS Reports – “As America grapples with an escalating plastic crisis, the city of Houston, ExxonMobil, and other partners announced a new program that promised to recycle nearly all of the city’s plastic waste. However, after two years, the program has yet to fully materialize. Critics argue that the evidence suggests it never will. And… Continue Reading
Google, Amazon and Meta are proposing changes to climate laws that would allow them to hide their actual emission numbers
FT.com: “By its own account, Amazon is a green business leader. The world’s most visited online marketplace and leading cloud services provider says it hit its 100 per cent renewable energy goal seven years ahead of a self-imposed target. But by another, Amazon is a heavy polluter, emitting much more climate-warming greenhouse gases through its… Continue Reading
Western Water Rights
Data is Plural: Western water rights. Matthew D. Lisk et al. have compiled and standardized a dataset of water rights records — key documents in the allocation of the scarce resource — in the Western United States. Drawing on raw data collected from 11 states, the harmonized dataset “provides consistent unique identifiers for each spatial… Continue Reading
Washing clothes with synthetic materials is the single greatest contributor to ocean microplastics
Washington Post – Sustainability experts say to avoid fabrics that blend natural and synthetic materials. [unpatwalled] “…Compared to 100% natural fibers or other biodegradable materials such as viscose, or rayon, which is made from a wood-like fiber, blended synthetic fabrics can be more durable and withstand more stress. They can also feel softer and smoother,… Continue Reading
Mainframes Find New Life in AI Era
WSJ via MSN: “Banks, insurance providers and airlines still find uses, including artificial intelligence, for the large computers that have been around for decades The industrial-strength mainframe computer, invented decades ago for heavy-duty data processing, is proving its staying power even as next-generation artificial intelligence takes center stage. The two are interconnected: Banks, insurance providers… Continue Reading
How Does Your State Make Electricity?
The New York Times [unpaywalled] America isn’t making electricity the way it did two decades ago. Visualization details How the United States made electricity from 2001 to 2023 – Percentage of power produced from each energy source. Fossil fuels still generate the majority of America’s electricity, but the shift from coal to natural gas and… Continue Reading
All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects
Frontiers.org – Threatening the food chain: “In many cities, the streetlights run all night — but what does this mean for the plants and animals that live there? Scientists tested Japanese pagoda trees and green ash trees in Beijing to see what effect round-the-clock light has on them. They found that the leaves were tougher… Continue Reading
