| In a world where authoritarianism and war are on the march, the fatalists have retreated, shrugging their shoulders in the knowledge that the climate crisis will probably moot everything else. And 2024 was certainly their year. The past 12 months have seen a steady drumbeat of unsuccessful climate negotiations where nations couldn’t put long-term survival ahead of short-term benefit. Talks to halt plastic pollution, protect biodiversity and end desertification all failed. A deal at the COP29 summit left developing nations furious with the amount of money agreed upon to help them battle global warming—and the accord even avoided mentioning the need to move away from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, humanity is burning more of those atmosphere-warming fossil fuels than ever with efforts to dig more out of the ground accelerating. Here’s how humanity spent yet another year not solving the problem that scientists warn could lead it its extinction. |
| Artificial intelligence data centers are multiplying across the US, and they’re sucking up huge amounts of power. Now, new evidence shows they may be distorting the normal flow of electricity for millions of Americans. An exclusive Bloomberg analysis tied to readings from about 770,000 home sensors shows more than three-quarters of highly-distorted power readings across the country are within 50 miles of significant AI data center activity. The result can be what’s called “bad harmonics,” and it’s not only bad for everything in your house that uses electricity, but also America’s outdated and increasingly fragile power grid. A power substation near a the LC1 CloudHQ data center in Ashburn, Virginia. Photographer: Bloomberg |
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