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 environmental impact


Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want to put data centres in SPACE - but experts warn they could be 'catastrophic' for the planet

Daily Mail - Science & tech

House of Horrors mom insists her kids were NOT'feral', as lawyer reveals her incredulous excuse for their'messy' home Bargain hunter bought Connecticut mansion for a pittance only to find family decomposing inside. Why Tom Brady's midlife crisis after Gisele Bundchen divorce threatens to ruin his legacy... and he doesn't care! Jon Bon Jovi, 64, abruptly stops NYC concert and tells audience he is'hurt' before leaving the stage So much has never been made public': Insiders at very top of Hollywood tell me bombshell twist that flips Taylor Swift-Lively feud on its head: ROB SHUTER McDonald's copies Costco with its newest menu item and fans have mixed reactions Meghan and Harry share snaps of their European summer holiday as pro-Sussex People magazine reveals they stayed at Princess Diana's childhood home with Archie and Lilibet The age when you must give up smoking to escape the risk of lung cancer: Experts reveal the truth about what quitting does to your body in your 30s, 40s, and 50s... and the REAL impact of that one cheeky cigarette a week White House defends Sophie Cunningham amid woke backlash... as WNBA star doubles down on trans views with new Instagram photos Hot summer snaps of Nicole Kidman getting affectionate with handsome businessman on Italian getaway... as friends speak out about moving on after Keith Urban divorce Amal Clooney's diet and fitness regime revealed - and it's surprisingly simple if you don't mind seaweed soup for breakfast! Harry has reached a new low. It's such a slap in the face to his father... especially after what the King's friend told me: RICHARD EDEN Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want to put data centres in SPACE - but experts warn they could be'catastrophic' for the planet Data centres in space could be'catastrophic' for the planet, scientsts have warned in response to plans laid out by some of the world's richest people.


How to Make AI Data Centers More Sustainable

TIME - Tech

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Design tweaks promote responsible AI use for environmental protection, research shows

AIHub

Artificial intelligence systems that ask users to pause to consider AI's energy consumption and environmental impacts are likely to reduce unnecessary AI use, new research by Oregon State University suggests. The findings, published in Science Communication, are important as AI is already using electricity on scales that can be meaningfully compared to households, factories and towns. For example, the electricity needed to train a large language model would power 120 homes for a year, the researchers note; one AI-generated image has roughly the same energy cost as charging a smartphone. With about 85% of the world's energy still coming from fossil fuels, every megawatt-hour that can be carved from AI's electricity profile is significant, says the study's leader, Cheng "Chris" Chen of the OSU College of Liberal Arts. "Despite AI's substantial environmental impacts, information about those impacts is rarely disclosed or effectively communicated to everyday users of AI systems," said Chen, assistant professor in the School of Communication.


Top AI ethics and policy issues of 2025 and what to expect in 2026

AIHub

This happened as generative and agentic systems became essential in key sectors worldwide. This feature highlights the major AI ethics and policy developments of 2025, and concludes with a forward-looking perspective on the ethical and policy challenges likely to shape 2026.


You're Thinking About AI and Water All Wrong

WIRED

Fears about AI data centers' water use have exploded. Experts say the reality is far more complicated than people think. Last month, journalist Karen Hao posted a Twitter thread in which she acknowledged that there was a substantial error in her blockbuster book Empire of AI. Hao had written that a proposed Google data center in a town near Santiago, Chile, could require "more than one thousand times the amount of water consumed by the entire population"--a figure which, thanks to a unit misunderstanding, appears to have been off by a magnitude of 1,000. In the thread, Hao thanked Andy Masley, the head of an effective altruism organization in Washington, DC, for bringing the correction to her attention. Masley has spent the past several months questioning some of the numbers and rhetoric common in popular media about water use and AI on his Substack.


Deep sea mining test uncovered multiple new species

Popular Science

One of the first studies of its kind also showed mining's stark effects on the abyssal plain. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Researchers completing one of the largest impact studies on the potential environmental impacts of deep-sea mining found a bit more than they bargained for on the ocean floor: 4,350 animals, each at least larger than 0.3 millimeters. From these, they ultimately identified 788 separate species of unique crustaceans, mollusks, marine bristle worms, and other creatures living in this sought after mining zone. While the team found that harvesting rare earth metals from over 13,000 feet below the ocean's surface may not be as destructive as initially theorized, the disruptions are still cause for serious concerns.


The Hidden AI Race: Tracking Environmental Costs of Innovation

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The past decade has seen a massive rise in the popularity of AI systems, mainly owing to the developments in Gen AI, which has revolutionized numerous industries and applications. However, this progress comes at a considerable cost to the environment as training and deploying these models consume significant computational resources and energy and are responsible for large carbon footprints in the atmosphere. In this paper, we study the amount of carbon dioxide released by models across different domains over varying time periods. By examining parameters such as model size, repository activity (e.g., commits and repository age), task type, and organizational affiliation, we identify key factors influencing the environmental impact of AI development. Our findings reveal that model size and versioning frequency are strongly correlated with higher emissions, while domain-specific trends show that NLP models tend to have lower carbon footprints compared to audio-based systems. Organizational context also plays a significant role, with university-driven projects exhibiting the highest emissions, followed by non-profits and companies, while community-driven projects show a reduction in emissions. These results highlight the critical need for green AI practices, including the adoption of energy-efficient architectures, optimizing development workflows, and leveraging renewable energy sources. We also discuss a few practices that can lead to a more sustainable future with AI, and we end this paper with some future research directions that could be motivated by our work. This work not only provides actionable insights to mitigate the environmental impact of AI but also poses new research questions for the community to explore. By emphasizing the interplay between sustainability and innovation, our study aims to guide future efforts toward building a more ecologically responsible AI ecosystem.


How Do Companies Manage the Environmental Sustainability of AI? An Interview Study About Green AI Efforts and Regulations

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

With the ever-growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), AI-based software and its negative impact on the environment are no longer negligible, and studying and mitigating this impact has become a critical area of research. However, it is currently unclear which role environmental sustainability plays during AI adoption in industry and how AI regulations influence Green AI practices and decision-making in industry. We therefore aim to investigate the Green AI perception and management of industry practitioners. To this end, we conducted a total of 11 interviews with participants from 10 different organizations that adopted AI-based software. The interviews explored three main themes: AI adoption, current efforts in mitigating the negative environmental impact of AI, and the influence of the EU AI Act and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Our findings indicate that 9 of 11 participants prioritized business efficiency during AI adoption, with minimal consideration of environmental sustainability. Monitoring and mitigation of AI's environmental impact were very limited. Only one participant monitored negative environmental effects. Regarding applied mitigation practices, six participants reported no actions, with the others sporadically mentioning techniques like prompt engineering, relying on smaller models, or not overusing AI. Awareness and compliance with the EU AI Act are low, with only one participant reporting on its influence, while the CSRD drove sustainability reporting efforts primarily in larger companies. All in all, our findings reflect a lack of urgency and priority for sustainable AI among these companies. We suggest that current regulations are not very effective, which has implications for policymakers. Additionally, there is a need to raise industry awareness, but also to provide user-friendly techniques and tools for Green AI practices.


The Climate Impact of Owning a Dog

WIRED

My dog contributes to climate change. I've been a vegetarian for over a decade. It's not because of my health, or because I dislike the taste of chicken or beef: It's a lifestyle choice I made because I wanted to reduce my impact on the planet. And yet, twice a day, every day, I lovingly scoop a cup of meat-based kibble into a bowl and set it down for my 50-pound rescue dog, a husky mix named Loki. Until recently, I hadn't devoted a huge amount of thought to that paradox.


Tired of turkey? Try gene edited, meat-like fungi.

Popular Science

Try gene edited, meat-like fungi. Using CRISPR, researchers made a protein packed fungi that's easier to stomach. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. It might not seem so obvious when walking past rows of vacuum-sealed Butterball turkeys at the supermarket, but the world is on the brink of a protein shortage . Global demand for animal-based protein is expected to double by 2050 and while plant-based alternatives exist, enthusiasm around them has wavered in recent years .