MIT Technology Review visited the eerie tree farms Apple and other companies rely on to try to cancel out their carbon emissions. Are they really helping to fight climate change? Or are they making problems worse? It’s complicated, and controversial, and a good read.
[technologyreview.com]
A leaked memo from the Office of Management and Budget proposes drastic cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency that leads weather and climate research in the US.
”We’ll go back to the technical and proficiency levels we had in the 1950s,” former NOAA acting chief scientist Craig McLean tells ProPublica.
It paves the way for the startup to partner with OpenAI on energy deals in the future, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Oklo is developing a next-generation nuclear reactor meant to be smaller, cheaper, and easier to deploy than a traditional nuclear power plant. Altman and other tech leaders are bullish about advanced nuclear reactors one day powering energy-hungry AI data centers, with Google and Amazon recently inked agreements with other companies developing small modular reactors.
DOGE is gutting the agency that enforces environmental laws Elon Musk’s companies have been accused of breaking.
That’s more than triple the total clean energy investments canceled over the past 30 months, according to a report from nonpartisan think tank E2. Economic uncertainty and proposals to rollback tax credits for renewables under the Trump administration are already taking a toll.
Despite those headwinds, however, companies still managed to announce $1.6 billion in investments in new solar, EV, and power grid facilities this March.
[technologyreview.com]
The Environmental Protection Agency is demanding answers from controversial start up Make Sunsets about its attempts to cool the planet down by releasing reflective particles into the atmosphere. The company started launching sulfur dioxide-filled balloons in the US after Mexico banned its efforts.
Environmental advocates have also criticized solar geoengineering as a risky distraction from legitimate efforts to stop climate change by getting rid of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
The NWS didn’t confirm whether that had anything to do with mass layoffs under DOGE’s cost-cutting crusade. It was also understaffed because of spring break, NWS told investigative reporter Travis Breese.
But federal workers have said there could be “devastating” losses because of cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration (NOAA) that houses NWS. In February, weather balloon launches needed to collect data for forecasts were suspended in western Alaska after layoffs.
The short-term rain forecasts are now available in Search, the company announced today.
AI isn’t going to replace traditional forecasting anytime soon. But Google and other researchers are developing AI models to help produce more accurate forecasts.
The company announced $99 million in new funding, part of its goal of transitioning its supply chain to entirely carbon pollution-free energy by 2030. This marks the second phase of the China Clean Energy Fund that Apple launched in 2018, AppleInsider reports.
[appleinsider.com]
The company that operates the pipeline sued the environmental group for $300 million, an amount 10 times Greenpeace USA’s annual budget. The outcome could make it easier to target other groups for their activism, advocates warned.
”Freedom of speech is on the line,” says Waniya Locke, a member of Standing Rock Grassroots, told The Verge recently. “This directly impacts everybody, not just Standing Rock, not just Greenpeace.”
The Trump administration reportedly has plans to slash the EPA’s budget by 65 percent and shut down its research department, firing up to 1,155 scientists.
“This is a wrecking ball assault on the science that protects the air we breathe and the water we drink from toxic chemicals and pollution,” Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, former principal deputy assistant administrator at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, said in a statement yesterday.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) placed 22 California offices for environmental protection and research on its list of leases to terminate, the Los Angeles Times reports.
That includes the L.A. office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The federal employee union representing EPA employees told The Verge last month that the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the agency could hamper wildfire recovery efforts in the region.
The agency is axing the Office of the Chief Scientist and the the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy.
NASA contributes significantly to research on climate, weather, air quality, and the environment. Joe Biden appointed chief scientist Katherine Calvin, who was recently stopped from joining a meeting of the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Science reports.
The program, DOSAir, monitored air quality at embassies around the world, helping to prevent hundreds of premature deaths. Now, the program is ending “due to budget constraints,” Wired reports.
Trump plans to “all but eliminate” the Office of Community Planning and Development as part of widespread layoffs across the federal government, the New York Times reports. It would slash the workforce within that office by 84 percent, the Times says, citing a document it obtained.
The office oversees payments for recovery efforts after major disasters, opening up questions about how North Carolina communities rebuilding after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene could be affected.