Taking a short break

How states are trying to keep AI data centers off your power bill Read the full story at Canary Media. Essentially everyone agrees: Americans shouldn’t pay higher electric bills to feed AI data centers’ insatiable demand for power. But what will it actually take to prevent cost spikes? Lots of…

Some top US lobbying firms are working both sides of the PFAS issue at the same time Read the full story in The Guardian. See also Bad Chemistry: The PFAS Lobbyists Who Also Lobby for PFAS Victims from F Minus and Mothers Out Front. Some top US lobbying firms are simultaneously working both sides…

Kristi Noem all but killed FEMA. Will her departure save it? Read the full story at Grist. The embattled Homeland Security secretary froze spending and slashed staff. It may well have been illegal.

The hidden potential of Trump’s critical minerals stockpile Read the full story at Grist. Last year, the Trump administration appeared to give up on the future of renewable energy entirely. It launched an all-out war against offshore wind; threw up byzantine regulatory hurdles to block renewables…

The latest front in the battle over climate lawsuits: Bills wiping out liability Read the full story at Inside Climate News. Republican lawmakers in multiple states and Congress are advancing proposals to shield polluters from climate accountability and prevent any type of liability for climate…

Administration to convene ‘God Squad’ with power to override environmental law Read the full story in the New York Times (gift article}. The Trump administration plans to convene the so-called God Squad, a high-level federal panel that has the power to override protections under the Endangered…

Making sense of a chaotic planet: How understanding weather and climate risks depends on supercomputers like NCAR’s by Antonios Mamalakis, University of Virginia Have you ever stopped to wonder how forecasters can predict the weather days in advance, or how scientists figure out how the climate…

Redesigning the value chain: A net‐zero circular economy approach to resource retention Ikram, M. (2026). Redesigning the value chain: A net‐zero circular economy approach to resource retention. Business Strategy and the Environment, bse.70591.  Abstract The twin transition to a circular economy…

City’s adoption of efficiency metric signals less reliance on third-party building certifications Read the full story at Utility Dive. Developers could still use LEED or other certifications to meet green building goals in Alexandria, Virginia, but the energy use intensity metric gives them an…

Zero-pollution, decarbonisation, and circular economy in energy-intensive industries Download the briefing. This briefing presents key air pollutant trends and projections for energy-intensive industries in Europe. It also discusses greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends over the past two decades.…

How deregulation made electricity more expensive, not cheaper Plugging in costs more these days. Devonyu/iStock / Getty Images Plus by Noah Dormady, The Ohio State University American families are feeling the pinch of rising electricity prices. In the past five years alone, the generation portion…

Former EPA staff detail expanding pollution risks under Trump Read the full story at Inside Climate News. See also Terrible Toxics: A Situation Report and Safer Not Sicker, both from the Environmental Protection Network. In a new report that outlines a dozen high-risk pollutants given new life…

Parking-aware navigation system could prevent frustration and emissions Read the full story from MIT. See also: Hickert, C., Li, S., He, Z., & Wu, C. (2026). Probability-aware parking selection (Version 2). arXiv.  By minimizing the need to drive around looking for a parking spot, this technique…

Microplastics and male reproductive system: A comprehensive review based on cellular and molecular effects Karimian, M., & Yaqubi, S. (2026). Microplastics and male reproductive system: A comprehensive review based on cellular and molecular effects. Toxicology Reports, 16, 102226.  Abstract…

The National Park Service saw major job losses in the last year. More changes loom. Read the full story at Inside Climate News. Just over a year ago, the Trump administration gutted staff across the National Park Service, triggering a series of protests around the country, a signal of the public’s…

Trump’s EPA claims strong enforcement. But the data tells a different story. Read the full story at Inside Climate News. For over a decade, Hino Motors Ltd. imported and sold more than 105,000 vehicles and engines with misleading or fabricated emissions data, until testing by the Environmental…

Flea and tick treatments for dogs and cats may be harming wildlife Read the full story from Oxford University Press USA. See also: Philippe J Berny, Bernadette España, Julie Auré, Julia Cado. Prolonged fecal elimination of isoxazoline antiparasitic drugs in dogs and cats: is there a risk for…

Impact of polystyrene microplastic exposure at low doses on male fertility: An experimental study in rats Alsenousy, A. H. A., Khalaf, A. H. Y., Ibrahim, H. Z., Kamel, M. A., & Yousef, M. I. (2026). Impact of polystyrene microplastic exposure at low doses on male fertility: An experimental study…

Unequal access to nature fuels America’s health crisis Read the full story at Inside Climate News. See also The Nature Gap: Communities of Color and Those With Low Incomes Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Nature Loss. The United States’ vanishing forests, wetlands and green spaces are not just…

How Oregon is building back smarter after wildfire Read the full story at Canary Media. After a destructive fire, residents faced the task of rebuilding. Thanks to state incentives, the new homes are more energy efficient and resilient to future threats.

The fight for the heart of the US Environmental Protection Agency Read the full story at Grist. One year after the Trump administration threw the EPA into chaos, former employees continue to push back—and to dream of an agency reborn.

Administration targeted climate lab in effort to free Trump ally, lawsuit claims Read the full story in the New York Times (gift article). The Trump administration has targeted a climate and weather research lab as retribution against Colorado officials for imprisoning a county clerk backed by the…

EPA hits 40-year lows in staffing after Trump targets its public health experts Read the full story at Inside Climate News. When President Donald Trump first sought to be the Republican standard-bearer in 2016, he promised to reduce the Environmental Protection Agency to “little tidbits.” Ten…

After Trump’s Interior Secretary transferred thousands of staff to his office, chaos followed, former workers say Read the full story at Inside Climate News. One year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of the Interior is in turmoil, hobbling many of the agencies overseeing…

After a lawsuit, USDA agrees to share climate risk data with farmers Read the full story at Grist. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office last January, employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture were reportedly instructed to flag and delete any webpages that mentioned climate change…

‘Sound science’ bills limiting state environmental regulations set ‘insurmountable burden of proof,’ scientists say Read the full story at Inside Climate News. A series of Republican state legislatures are advancing, or have already passed, laws severely limiting the ability of state agencies to…

Illinois to data centers: Bring your own renewables and skip the line Read the full story at Canary Media. Across the country, state lawmakers are considering ways to address the risks posed by the explosion of power-hungry data centers. They have proposed an array of bills to impose moratoriums…

Illinois cities move to cut ties with a massive coal plant Read the full story at Canary Media. Across Illinois, dozens of communities are locked into contracts to buy power from the state’s biggest coal plant for decades to come. But two cities in search of cheaper, cleaner energy want out. The…

EVs are already making your air cleaner Read the full story at Grist. See also: Eckel, S. P., Chen, F., Silva, S. J., et al (2026). Zero-emissions vehicle adoption and satellite-measured NO2 air pollution in California, USA, from 2019 to 2023: A longitudinal observational study. The Lancet…

The rate case for grid resilience: Why climate change isn’t just about storms Read the full opinion piece at Utility Dive. Utilities that delay resilience investments hoping that global climate mitigation efforts will reduce the need for local hardening are taking a dangerous gamble, writes Kai…

Time-consuming task of conserving Jane Goodall Institute field notes gets a boost from AI Read the full story from Arizona State University. Arizona State University is continuing the legacy of scientist, conservationist and ethologist Jane Goodall by bringing decades of research into the digital…

Bridging science and society in the emerging bioeconomy Read the full story at MIT News. In STS.059 (The Bioeconomy and Society), students explore the social and political factors at work in the biology, biotech, and biological engineering sectors.

AI breakthrough could replace rare earth magnets in electric vehicles Read the full story from the University of New Hampshire. See also: Suman Itani, Yibo Zhang, Jiadong Zang. The northeast materials database for magnetic materials. Nature Communications, 2025; 16 (1)…

What goes up must come down Read the full story at Inside Climate News. See also: Wing, R., Gerding, M., Plane, J. M. C., Morfa, Y. A., Urco, J. M., Yamazaki, Y., Schulz, L., Höffner, J., Mielich, J., Renkwitz, T., Stephan, C. C., Baumgarten, G., & Stolle, C. (2026). Measurement of a lithium plume…

Microplastics detected in majority of freshwater bird nests across Europe  Read the full story at Resource Media. See also: Martin, C., Steenson, R., Nicoll, M., Galarza, A., Spatharis, S., & Salmón, P. (2026). Microplastic exposure and body condition in White-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus)…

Would you pay $49 a month to drink recycled wastewater? Read the full story at Grist. A recent survey found that rural Americans would pay for the privilege of water reuse. Here's the huge potential benefit of the technique. 

How a groundbreaking Indigenous treaty on whales’ rights could change national laws Read the full story at Inside Climate News. In one of his final acts before his death in 2024, Māori King Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero helped galvanize Pacific Indigenous leaders to sign a landmark declaration…

How sustainability leaders can cope with uncertainty and risk in 2026 Read the full story at trellis. Leaders from Impact Pathways, Patagonia, Suntory and The Nature Conservancy share lessons learned in 2025 that are guiding their decisions in 2026. 

New architecture program teaches students how to design with Indigenous principles in mind Read the full story from Arizona State University. Imagine a Tempe Town Lake free of concrete, its banks lush with native creosote and wildflowers, with winding dirt paths. That visualization was created by…

Zero Waste Europe proposes split EPR fees to fund EU waste reduction measures  Read the full story from Resource Media. Zero Waste Europe has published proposals for the EU Circular Economy Act that would split EPR fees into waste management and waste reduction budgets, alongside a temporary fund…

Microsoft is the carbon removal market Read the full story at Latitude Media. Microsoft is keeping the still-nascent carbon removal market afloat. The tech giant purchased 93% of all the carbon removal credits globally last year, according to new research by BloombergNEF and the Business Council…

Environmental pollutants: A growing concern for reproductive health Read the full story at Technology Networks. Environmental pollutants have already been linked to a wide array of chronic and acute health conditions. Air pollution from automobile emissions, burning waste, and volcanic eruptions…

Waterloo researchers turning plastic waste into vinegar  Read the full story from the University of Waterloo. See also: Wei, W., Du, C., Ge, J., et al (2026). Bio‐inspired cascade photocatalysis on Fe single‐atom carbon nitride upcycles plastic wastes for effective acetic acid production. Advanced…

Where do the Super Bowl leftovers go? Read the full story at Waste360. On Super Bowl Sunday, excess is part of the big game experience. More food. More fans. More everything. At the Players Tailgate, thousands of guests enjoyed gourmet dishes from celebrity chefs before kickoff. But behind the…

Documents reveal a web of financial ties between Trump officials and the industries they help regulate Read the full story from ProPublica. ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry…

Researchers have figured out how to make airplanes fly on landfill gas Read the full story at Anthropocene Magazine. See also: Jeong, S., Lim, J. J., Yoo, J., Yun, Y. S., Park, S.-J., Lee, J. W., Kim, K., Chae, H. S., Lee, Y.-J., & Han, S. J. (2026). Comprehensive study of cobalt-based hybrid…

Coffee crops are dying from a fungus with species‑jumping genes – researchers are ‘resurrecting’ their genomes to understand how and why by Lily Peck, University of California, Los Angeles For anyone who relies on coffee to start their day, coffee wilt disease may be the most important disease…

The science influencers going viral on TikTok to fight misinformation Read the full story in Nature. According to a 2025 report by the Reuters Institute in Oxford and the University of Oxford, 65% of people worldwide now consume video on social media1. Increasingly, many individuals, especially…

Can you hear it? That’s the sound of a successful rainforest recovery program. Read the full story at Anthropocene Magazine. See also: Delgado, G. L., Van Den Hoogen, J., Dent, D. H., el al (2026). Large‐scale forest restoration accompanied by biodiversity recovery in Costa rRca’s redistributive…