The Guardian – Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, warns a coalition of environmental groups – “Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, with the technology instead likely cause rising energy use and turbocharge the spread of climate disinformation, a coalition of environmental groups has… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Environmental Law
The Lifeblood of the AI Boom
The Atlantic – The Lifeblood of the AI Boom – [unpaywalled] “Applications such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have captured the world’s imagination—but AI companies are focused on something else. Artificial intelligence can appear to be many different things—a whole host of programs with seemingly little common ground. Sometimes AI is a conversation partner, an illustrator,… Continue Reading
Pretend Plastic Recycling
Data is Beautiful – Only 1% of all plastics have ever been recycled and put back into use. Most have been dumped (~60%) or incinerated (10%). The remaining 30% are still in use. See also Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse Science Advances – Production, use, and fate of… Continue Reading
The AI data scraping challenge: How can we proceed responsibly?
OECD.AI Policy Observatory – Lee Tiedrich, Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Ethical Technology, Duke University Science & Society. March 5, 2024. Society faces an urgent and complex artificial intelligence (AI) data scraping challenge. Left unsolved, it could threaten responsible AI innovation. Data scraping refers to using web crawlers or other means to obtain data from third-party… Continue Reading
Do firms mitigate climate impact on employment? Evidence from US heat shocks
Acharya, Viral V. and Acharya, Viral V. and Bhardwaj, Abhishek and Tomunen, Tuomas, Do firms mitigate climate impact on employment? Evidence from US heat shocks (August 15, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4660007 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4660007 “How do firms mitigate the impact of rising temperatures on employment? Using establishment-level data, we show that firms operating in multiple… Continue Reading
Researchers Warn Arctic Ocean could be ‘ice-free’ within the decade
Los Angeles Times: “The loss of Arctic sea ice has long been a graphic measure of human-caused climate change, with wrenching images of suffering polar bears illustrating a worsening planetary crisis. Now, new research has found that Arctic Ocean sea ice is shrinking even faster than previously thought — and that the Arctic may start… Continue Reading
Recycling robot is saving millions of bottles from the landfill
Fast Company: “If you throw a plastic water bottle or yogurt cup in a recycling bin, it might not necessarily be recycled.Inside sprawling warehouses that the industry calls “MRFs” or materials recovery facilities, machines and workers often sort through hundreds of tons of waste a day. The process is imperfect, and valuable recyclables can often… Continue Reading
The European Extreme Events Climate Index
“The European Extreme Events Climate Index (E3CI) provides a general overview of weather-induced hazards by combining seven components: Extreme Max and Min Temperature, Drought, Extreme Precipitation, Hail, Fire, Extreme Wind. The European Extreme Events Climate Index (E3CI) is an ensemble of indices aimed at providing information about the areas affected by different types of weather-induced… Continue Reading
State of the Union
USA Facts: In Numbers – A nonpartisan, data-driven snapshot of the state of our union. “Article II of the US Constitution mandates that the president periodically inform Congress about the “state of the union,” including budget reports and legislative proposals. It is also a chance for the president to review their achievements, with not just… Continue Reading
GreenerCars
“GreenerCars is an annual assessment of every new model in the U.S. light-duty vehicle market. It is based on a lifecycle assessment of the greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions from the production, use, and disposal of each vehicle. Unlike other evaluations of the health and environmental impact of vehicles that rely solely on fuel-efficiency,… Continue Reading
Celebrating Birds, Together
“The 2024 Great Backyard Bird Count saw hundreds of thousands of people turn their eyes and ears outside to watch and listen for birds—on every continent and virtually every country. Fortunately for us, many of those people brought cameras and shared their photography from all parts of the globe. The results are simply amazing, as… Continue Reading
Watch and learn about bats on the Bat World Sanctuary livecam
BoingBoing: “If you love bats, you should check out Bat World Sanctuary, which is located in north Texas and which posts cool and educational videos of the various bats they care for. According to their website: Bat World Sanctuary is on the front line to end the mistreatment of bats. Each year we rescue hundreds of… Continue Reading
