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Climate

Tesla Delivers 358,023 Vehicles in 1st Quarter — CHARTS & GRAPHS

Tesla delivered just 358,023 vehicles in the 1st quarter, which was a 6.3% increase over Q1 2025, but was also the second worst quarter for the company since Q3 2022. Meanwhile, the company produced 408,386 vehicles. Let’s take a little closer look at the vehicle deliveries, including some estimates on ... [continued]

The post Tesla Delivers 358,023 Vehicles in 1st Quarter — CHARTS & GRAPHS appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

The AI Boom Is a Climate Bust

“I think AI will probably, like, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world,” Sam Altman said in 2015, the year he co-founded Open AI, the artificial intelligence company that made him a billionaire. But not to worry, he added: “in the meantime, there will be great companies created with serious machine learning.” 

As if to confirm Altman’s dystopian prediction, recent scientific research has documented that AI chatbots increasingly lie, cheat, and disregard direct instructions from humans. That’s bad enough when the issue is whether emails should be deleted, it’s another thing entirely when the future of humanity is at stake. In simulated war games, AI ordered nuclear strikes in 95 cases out of 100, researchers at Kings College London found. 

Bill Gates has said that AI “will make it easier to fight climate change,” but more and more evidence suggests that AI actually makes it harder. “Our investigations have documented that Big Tech is now increasingly embracing the climate crisis denial rhetoric of Big Oil,” Geoff Dembicki, the global managing editor of DeSmog told Covering Climate Now. Scientific American has reported that Elon Musk’s AI chatbot has been spreading climate denial. 

“Targeted AI has become a key tool in spreading climate change disinformation,” observes a report by the NGO Forum On Information Democracy. “AI algorithms can help craft highly personalized messages … [that are] more persuasive and [likelier to be] shared.” AI-driven microtargeting affects 34% of social media users globally, enabling “disinformation campaigns to outpace traditional countermeasures such as fact-checking or public rebuttals. … As a result, even authentic reporting can be misinterpreted or dismissed, contributing to public confusion, skepticism, and apathy.”

Then there’s the mindboggling amounts of electricity and water AI demands — no small concern, when rapidly phasing out fossil fuels is imperative to avoid climate breakdown. “A single AI-focused data center consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households,” the International Energy Agency has determined and “the largest ones under development are expected to use 20 times as much.” Much of that electricity has come from burning gas, further overheating the planet. Heat released by the data centers’ processes also “create ‘heat islands,’ warming the land around them by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and making life hotter for up to 340 million people,” concluded a new study summarized by CNN. Meanwhile, even as rising global temperatures are increasing the frequency and severity of drought, more than two-thirds of the thousands of data centers being built in the US have been in water-scarce regions, where each center can consume 300,000 gallons of water a day, enough to supply 1,000 households.

No wonder the AI boom is encountering fierce grassroots resistance across the US, from across the political spectrum — left to right, rural, urban, and suburban. For journalists, the breadth of that backlash makes AI’s effects on the planet much more than a tech or even a climate story. It should now be on the radar of newsrooms everywhere. A new Quinnipiac poll found that Americans by a 3-to-1 margin (65% to 24%) oppose having an AI data center built in their community. Their leading concern is skyrocketing electric bills. Indeed, bills for households in the vicinity of a data center have gone up as much as 267% in the last five years, Bloomberg reported.

Like fossil fuel executives, AI titans have long insisted that their technology is inevitable. That, too, seems not to be true. Some 100 communities across 14 states have imposed moratoria on building data centers. Last week, US senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation calling for a six-month nationwide moratorium to buy time to evaluate AI’s impacts on environmental, labor, and other issues, including AI’s ability to “create Big Brother type surveillance” of citizens exercising their First Amendment right to protest, Ocasio-Cortez said. 

The AI boom, if it continues, is shaping up as a bust for climate survival. A few days after Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez introduced their bill, The New York Times reported that the AI industry, aided by former Trump adviser Taylor Budowich, plans to spend “at least $100 million dollars” to make sure the midterm elections go its way in November. Perhaps AI is not so inevitable after all? 

From Us

WATCH: “Virtually Impossible” Heat & the Future of the American West. CCNow and Climate Central hosted a press briefing about the heatwave that blanketed the American West in March, its connections with climate change, and what it means for the region’s future.

SEJ bound? Join CCNow and Solutions Journalism Network for a workshop on Wednesday, April 15. For more details, look on the schedule for “Workshop 3 — Mapping The Future of Climate Journalism,” from 1–4pm US Central Time. CCNow and Sentient will also co-host a happy hour on Friday, April 17, from 5:45–8pm, at Vintage Bar, one block from the conference venue. Join us!

Noteworthy Stories

India’s climate plan. A year past the deadline, India’s cabinet has approved a new climate plan for submission to the UN. The plan commits India to source 60% of its electricity-generating capacity from renewables by 2035 and fortify carbon sinks, like forests, to draw down more carbon dioxide. By Aruna Chandrasekhar for Carbon Brief…

Why the delay? France has condemned efforts by Saudi Arabia and India to delay release of the next UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Countries supporting an on-time release want the report published before a “global stock take” scheduled to occur at the 2028 UN climate summit (which, perhaps ironically, India is driving to host). Published every five to seven years, the IPCC reports capture the state of global climate change. From Le Monde with AFP reporting…

Iran and the case for renewables. The energy crisis sparked by US and Israeli attacks on Iran exposes the fragility of a global economy dependent on fossil fuels. Countries like Spain and Portugal, which generate much of their energy using renewables, have been comparatively insulated from global price shocks. By Nehal Johri for Deutsche Welle…

Politicizing relief. Since Trump’s return to office, only 23% of disaster relief requests to the Federal Emergency Management Agency made by Democratic-led states have been approved by his administration — compared to 89% approval of requests made by Republican-led states. By Thomas Frank for Politico’s E&E News…

Christianity on climate. Climate scientist and Evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe talks with independent journalist Chase Cain about climate sentiments among Christians in the US, describing environmentalism as consistent with Biblical teachings and humanity’s obligation to take car of “God’s creation.” Watch (and subscribe!) on Cain’s YouTube channel…

Quote of the Week

“It’s a situation so serious that even I can’t sleep. South Korea needs to transition to renewable energy quickly. If we rely on fossil energy, the future will be extremely risky.”

– South Korean president Lee Jae Myung about the global energy crisis

Resources & Events

RSVP: Data Journalism: Reporting Where Climate and Health Meet. Climate Central and SciLine are co-hosting a webinar on Tuesday, April 7, at 1pm US Eastern Time (17:00h UTC), to teach journalists how to report on the intersection of climate and health, using data tools to deepen reporting. Learn more and RSVP.

RSVP: Communicating Climate Solutions. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication is hosting a webinar for journalists on Thursday, April 9, at 12pm US Eastern Time (16:00h UTC), about how to effectively engage audiences, the vast majority of whom are alarmed about climate change, with climate solutions stories. Learn more and RSVP.

Snow drought. Climate Central has published new data and graphics showing that this winter’s record snow drought is limiting water supplies in the American West and setting the stage for a more severe wildfire season. Learn more and download.

Regional energy picture. Canary Media offers four regional newsletters to keep you up to date on the latest energy stories from different regions of the US. Sign up.

ICYMI: State of the Global Climate report. The World Meteorological Organization published its latest report assessing the state of the climate last week, which included findings that Earth’s climate is out of balance and that 2015–2025 were the 11 hottest years on record. Read the press release.

Jobs, Etc.

Jobs. CNN is hiring several weather-related positions, including Senior Photo Editor, Senior Editor (Features), a Digital Meteorologist, Weekends, and a Weekend Editor (hybrid; multiple locations). NOTUS is hiring a Climate and Energy Reporter (Washington, D.C. area, preferred). Nexstar Media Group is hiring a Morning Meteorologist (Colorado Springs, Colo.). MPR News is hiring a Chief Meteorologist (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Fellowships. The Committee to Protect Journalists is accepting applications for its Climate Change and Press Freedom Fellowship; apply by April 12.The International Women’s Media Foundation is accepting applications for its 2027 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship; apply by April 19. NYU Stern School of Business is accepting applications for its Climate Economics Journalism Fellowship; apply by April 20. Sentient is recruiting a Student Editorial Fellow; apply by May 29 (remote).

Grants. The Journalismfund Europe is accepting proposals for its Professional Development for Environmental Journalism. The Pulitzer Center is accepting proposals for its Impact Seed Fund to support educational and engagement initiatives in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. 

Support Covering Climate Now

The post The AI Boom Is a Climate Bust appeared first on Covering Climate Now.

Climate

Arctic ice loss brings dual heatwaves to Europe and eastern Asia

The Barents Sea might seem too far away to affect our weather – but research shows it does

The Barents Sea, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia, might seem too far away to have an impact on our weather. But new research shows that ice loss on the sea is increasing the frequency of concurrent summer heatwaves across Europe and eastern Asia.

Jilan Jiang from the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences in Bejing, and colleagues, studied ice data and global weather patterns going back to 1979. The researchers discovered a link between stronger spring and summer ice loss over the Barents Sea since 2000 and dual heatwaves over Europe and eastern Asia.

Continue reading...
Climate

The dark side of the balloon boom – is it time they were banned?

From balloon arches at parties to mass balloon releases at funerals, these bits of floating rubber and plastic can have disastrous effects on wildlife. As some retailers are refusing to sell them, here are some alternatives

I remember, as a child, hanging on to one specific party balloon for what seemed like years. I don’t remember how or where I acquired it, but it had initially floated high, bobbing against the ceiling, and, over time, lost its buoyancy, coming to rest on the carpet. Yet, when a family friend asked if they should pop the now sad-looking balloon, I assumed they were joking – like when an adult asks, teasingly, if they should eat your last slice of birthday cake – and was distraught when they followed through. I didn’t care that it had become grubby and partly deflated – I’d had that balloon for what felt like for ever.

This, it turns out, is the problem with many balloons. Not that clingy young children might become over-attached to them, but that they are often a single-use plastic – and even biodegradable alternatives such as latex balloons do not decompose quickly, meaning they can pose a significant risk to wildlife and the environment. In 2019, scientists found that balloons eaten by seabirds are more likely to kill them than other kinds of plastic – yet they do not seem to have been earmarked in the same way as, for example, plastic straws. If anything, balloon-based decor has become more popular in recent years, with balloon arches or tunnels deployed not just at birthdays but at events ranging from baby showers to shop openings. Balloon drops are used at New Year’s Eve celebrations and graduation parties, and balloon releases have also endured – particularly at funerals, where the unleashing of helium-filled balloons signifies the letting-go of a loved one.

Continue reading...
Climate

Volkswagen–Rivian Software‑Defined Vehicles: Joint Venture RV Tech Successfully Completes Winter Testing

The joint venture “Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies” (RV Tech) has successfully completed the winter tests of its production-intent zonal architecture for the first generation of software‑defined vehicles (SDVs). Over the course of several months of testing in Phoenix (USA) and Arjeplog (Sweden), a joint team from Volkswagen, Audi, Scout, ... [continued]

The post Volkswagen–Rivian Software‑Defined Vehicles: Joint Venture RV Tech Successfully Completes Winter Testing appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

U.S. Coal Exports Decreased in 2025 after 4 Years of Growth

After four years of growth, U.S. coal exports decreased by 16 million short tons (MMst) in 2025, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Exports totaled 93 MMst in 2025, compared with 108 MMst in 2024. Thermal coal exports fell by 18%, and metallurgical coal exports fell by 11%. The ... [continued]

The post U.S. Coal Exports Decreased in 2025 after 4 Years of Growth appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

Electric Bus Deliveries in Australia Continue in 2026

In the midst of a fuel crisis in Australia, caused by Middle East war miscalculations, I would expect that many transport companies are wishing they had ordered more battery electric buses. Diesel is over $AU 3 per litre, while electricity prices remain the same. Fleets are still converting slowly, though. ... [continued]

The post Electric Bus Deliveries in Australia Continue in 2026 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

BREAKING: Tesla Robotaxis Will Be Covering 70% of US Population in 2 Weeks

If you’ve been following Tesla for a fairly long time, you’re probably familiar with the “two weeks” meme. Several years ago, Elon Musk kept promising that a notable Full Self Driving update would be coming in two weeks, and then kept not delivering and saying again that it was just ... [continued]

The post BREAKING: Tesla Robotaxis Will Be Covering 70% of US Population in 2 Weeks appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

Waymo: “Hallo, Konnichiwa, Annyeonghaseyo, and Bonjour!”

Hallo, Konnichiwa, Annyeonghaseyo, and Bonjour! No matter how you say it, the Waymo Driver can now too. We’re thrilled to announce that the Waymo experience is now localized for Japanese, Korean, Polish, Italian, French, German, and British English. Waymo is for everyone, and that means meeting you where you are. ... [continued]

The post Waymo: “Hallo, Konnichiwa, Annyeonghaseyo, and Bonjour!” appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

Major SPP Western Expansion Opens Clean Energy Opportunities Across Region

DENVER — Today the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) officially expanded, connecting western and eastern electric grids and providing increased access to clean energy for major utilities across the West and Great Plains in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, and Arizona. Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) like SPP allow states and regions to share ... [continued]

The post Major SPP Western Expansion Opens Clean Energy Opportunities Across Region appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

Middle East Energy Crisis: Comparing Operating Costs for Diesel vs Electric Trucks

As energy prices keep rising, new analysis highlights the benefits of truck electrification Only weeks after the EU Parliament approved a weakening of the HDV CO2 standards, this emerging energy crisis should serve as a stark reminder that Europe’s only path to true strategic sovereignty lies in accelerating electrification of ... [continued]

The post Middle East Energy Crisis: Comparing Operating Costs for Diesel vs Electric Trucks appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

Global Climate Panel Faces Strife, Potential Funding Crunch

Major reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are still on track, but procedural gridlock and a looming funding shortage hint at future problems.

By Bob Berwyn

At a time when cascading climate shocks are unfolding faster than scientists can track them, the UN’s scientific body that assesses global warming risks and response options is mired in procedural gridlock and staring at a potential budget crunch.

Climate

The Warm, Dry Winter Has Left Firefighters in Wyoming Nervous

A national forecast underscored the elevated risk of wildfire across the West, which just experienced a climate change-fueled heatwave after a winter with little snow.

By Jake Bolster

On the heels of one of the warmest and driest winters on record, parts of Wyoming show “significant fire potential” this spring and summer, according to a national forecast released on April 1.

Uncategorized

The EU Killed Voluntary CSAM Scanning. West Virginia Is Trying To Compel It. Both Cause Problems.

Last week, the European Parliament voted to let a temporary exemption lapse that had allowed tech companies to scan their services for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) without running afoul of strict EU privacy regulations. Meanwhile, here in the US, West Virginia’s Attorney General continues to press forward with a lawsuit designed to force Apple to scan iCloud for CSAM, apparently oblivious to the fact that succeeding would hand defense attorneys the best gift they’ve ever received.

Two different jurisdictions. Two diametrically opposed approaches, both claiming to protect children, and both making it harder to actually do so.

I’ll be generous and assume people pushing both of these views genuinely think they’re doing what’s best for children. This is a genuinely complex topic with real, painful tradeoffs, and reasonable people can weigh them differently. What’s frustrating is watching policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic charge forward with approaches that seem driven more by vibes than by any serious engagement with how the current system actually works — or why it was built the way it was.

The European Parliament just voted against extending a temporary regulation that had exempted tech platforms from GDPR-style privacy rules when they voluntarily scanned for CSAM. This exemption had been in place (and repeatedly extended) for years while Parliament tried to negotiate a permanent framework. Those negotiations have been going on since November 2023 without resolution, and on Thursday MEPs decided they were done extending the stopgap.

To be clear, Parliament didn’t pass a law banning CSAM scanning. Companies can still technically scan if they want to. But without the exemption, they’re now exposed to massive privacy liability under EU law for doing so. Scanning private messages and stored content to look for CSAM is, after all, mass surveillance — and European privacy law treats mass surveillance seriously (which, in most cases, it should!). So the practical effect is a chilling one: companies that were voluntarily scanning now face significant legal risk if they continue.

The digital rights organization eDRI framed the issue in stark terms:

“This is actually just enabling big tech companies to scan all of our private messages, our most intimate details, all our private chats so it constitutes a really, really serious interference with our right to privacy. It’s not targeted against people that are suspected of child abuse — It’s just targeting everyone, potentially all of the time.”

And that argument is compelling. Hash-matching systems that compare uploaded images against databases of known CSAM are more targeted than, say, keyword scanning of every message, but they still fundamentally involve examining every unencrypted piece of content that passes through the system. When eDRI says it targets “everyone, potentially all of the time,” that’s an accurate description of how the technology works.

But… the technology also works to find and catch CSAM. Europol’s executive director, Catherine De Bolle, pointed to concrete numbers:

Last year alone, Europol processed around 1.1 million of so-called CyberTips, originating from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), of relevance to 24 European countries. CyberTips contain multiple entities (files, videos, photos etc.) supporting criminal investigation efforts into child sexual abuse online.

If the current legal basis for voluntary detection by online platforms were to be removed, this is expected to result in a serious reduction of CyberTip referrals. This would undermine the capability to detect relevant investigative leads on CSAM, which in turn will severely impair the EU’s security interests of identifying victims and safeguarding children.

The companies that have been doing this scanning — Google, Microsoft, Meta, Snapchat, TikTok — released a joint statement saying they are “deeply concerned” and warning that the lapse will leave “children across Europe and around the world with fewer protections than they had before.”

So the EU’s privacy advocates aren’t wrong about the surveillance problem. Europol isn’t wrong about the child safety consequences. Both things are true — which is what makes this genuinely tricky rather than a case of one side being obviously right.

Now flip to the United States, where the problem is precisely inverted.

In the US, the existing system has been carefully constructed around a single, critical principle: companies voluntarily choose to scan for CSAM, and when they find it, they’re legally required to report it to NCMEC. The word “voluntarily” is doing enormous load-bearing work in that sentence — and most of the people currently shouting about CSAM don’t seem to know it. As Stanford’s Riana Pfefferkorn explained in detail on Techdirt when a private class action lawsuit against Apple tried to compel CSAM scanning:

While the Fourth Amendment applies only to the government and not to private actors, the government can’t use a private actor to carry out a search it couldn’t constitutionally do itself. If the government compels or pressures a private actor to search, or the private actor searches primarily to serve the government’s interests rather than its own, then the private actor counts as a government agent for purposes of the search, which must then abide by the Fourth Amendment, otherwise the remedy is exclusion.

If the government – legislative, executive, or judiciary – forces a cloud storage provider to scan users’ files for CSAM, that makes the provider a government agent, meaning the scans require a warrant, which a cloud services company has no power to get, making those scans unconstitutional searches. Any CSAM they find (plus any other downstream evidence stemming from the initial unlawful scan) will probably get excluded, but it’s hard to convict people for CSAM without using the CSAM as evidence, making acquittals likelier. Which defeats the purpose of compelling the scans in the first place.

In the US, if the government forces Apple to scan, that makes Apple a government agent. Government agents need warrants. Apple can’t get warrants. So the scans are unconstitutional. So the evidence gets thrown out. So the predators walk free. All because someone thought “just make them scan!” was a simple solution to a complex problem.

Congress apparently understood this when it wrote the federal reporting statute — that’s why the law explicitly disclaims any requirement that providers proactively search for CSAM. The voluntariness of the scanning is what preserves its legal viability. Everyone involved in the actual work of combating CSAM — prosecutors, investigators, NCMEC, trust and safety teams — understands this and takes great care to preserve it.

Everyone, apparently, except the Attorney General of West Virginia. As we discussed recently, West Virginia just filed a lawsuit demanding that a court order Apple to “implement effective CSAM detection measures” on iCloud. The remedy West Virginia seeks — a court order compelling scanning — would spring the constitutional trap that everyone who actually works on this issue has been carefully avoiding for years.

As Pfefferkorn put it:

Any competent plaintiff’s counsel should have figured this out before filing a lawsuit asking a federal court to make Apple start scanning iCloud for CSAM, thereby making Apple a government agent, thereby turning the compelled iCloud scans into unconstitutional searches, thereby making it likelier for any iCloud user who gets caught to walk free, thereby shooting themselves in the foot, doing a disservice to their client, making the situation worse than the status quo, and causing a major setback in the fight for child safety online.

The reason nobody’s filed a lawsuit like this against Apple to date, despite years of complaints from left, right, and center about Apple’s ostensibly lackadaisical approach to CSAM detection in iCloud, isn’t because nobody’s thought of it before. It’s because they thought of it and they did their fucking legal research first. And then they backed away slowly from the computer, grateful to have narrowly avoided turning themselves into useful idiots for pedophiles.

The West Virginia complaint also treats Apple’s abandoned NeuralHash client-side scanning project as evidence that Apple could scan but simply chose not to. What it skips over is why the security community reacted so strongly to NeuralHash in the first place. Apple’s own director of user privacy and child safety laid out the problem:

Scanning every user’s privately stored iCloud content would in our estimation pose serious unintended consequences for our users… Scanning for one type of content, for instance, opens the door for bulk surveillance and could create a desire to search other encrypted messaging systems across content types (such as images, videos, text, or audio) and content categories. How can users be assured that a tool for one type of surveillance has not been reconfigured to surveil for other content such as political activity or religious persecution? Tools of mass surveillance have widespread negative implications for freedom of speech and, by extension, democracy as a whole.

Once you create infrastructure capable of scanning every user’s private content for one category of material, you’ve created infrastructure capable of scanning for anything. The pipe doesn’t care what flows through it. Governments around the world — some of them not exactly champions of human rights — have a well-documented habit of demanding expanded use of existing surveillance capabilities. This connects directly to the perennial fights over end-to-end encryption backdoors, where the same argument applies: you cannot build a door that only the good guys can walk through.

And then there’s the scale problem. Even the best hash-matching systems can produce false positives, and at the scale of major platforms, even tiny error rates translate into enormous numbers of wrongly flagged users.

This is one of those frustrating stories where you can… kinda see all sides, and there’s no easy or obvious answer:

Scanning works, at least somewhat. 1.1 million CyberTips from Europol in a single year. Some number of children identified and rescued because platforms voluntarily detected CSAM and reported it. The system produces real results.

Scanning is mass surveillance. Every image, every message gets examined (algorithmically), not just those belonging to suspected offenders. The privacy intrusion is real, not hypothetical, and it falls on everyone.

Compelled scanning breaks prosecutions. In the US, the Fourth Amendment means that government-ordered scanning creates a get-out-of-jail card for the very predators everyone claims to be targeting. The voluntariness of the system is what makes it legally functional.

Scanning infrastructure is repurposable. A system built to detect CSAM can be retooled to detect political speech, religious content, or anything else. This concern is not paranoid; it’s an engineering reality.

False positives at scale are inevitable. Even highly accurate systems will flag innocent content when processing billions of items, and the consequences for wrongly accused individuals are severe.

People can and will weigh these tradeoffs differently, and that’s legitimate. The tension described in all this is real and doesn’t resolve neatly.

But what both the EU Parliament’s vote and West Virginia’s lawsuit share is an unwillingness to sit with that tension. The EU stripped legal cover from the voluntary system that was actually producing results, without having a workable replacement ready. West Virginia is trying to compel what must remain voluntary, apparently without bothering to read the constitutional case law that makes compelled scanning self-defeating. From opposite directions, both approaches attack the same fragile voluntary architecture that currently threads the needle between these competing interests.

The status quo in the United States — voluntary scanning, mandatory reporting, no government compulsion to search — is far from perfect. But the system functions: it produces leads, preserves prosecutorial viability, and does so precisely because it was designed by people who understood the tradeoffs and built accordingly.

It would be nice if more policymakers engaged with why the system works the way it does before trying to blow it up from either direction. In tech policy, the loudest voices in the room are rarely the ones who’ve done the reading.

Journalism, News-tech

Wednesfool

You're welcome

I don't hate April Fools Day. I'm just too busy to participate. So this is a fooling-free blog post.

Much to munch on

Getting great hang time with Jon Udell (who also manifests here) lately. Here are two of his recent publishings ya'll might dig:
• Introducing XMLUI
• Beyond The Dip

Is there also a Gander?

Just discovered Goose.

Also, while we're not at it, A2UI.

Bad try

This appears to be an interesting story, and available to free (as well as to paying) subscribers, but the shakedown is so hard and blunt that I moved on.

Did your chatbot not warn you?

[Sycophantic Chatbots Cause Delusional Spiraling](Sycophantic Chatbots Cause Delusional Spiraling).

Another example of how BigAIs have become the Great Typicalizers of Everything

Florian Roth is tired of reading AI-written posts. His main take: "They all sound like the same guy." 

I fear that guy is, at least in part, me. The sentence fragments, the short paragraphs, the em dashes. (These: —.) As source material, my writing is thick on the Web's ground, going back to the early '90s. Example.

I'll cop to one of his tells: absurd certainty. Some of mine turned out to be the opposite of absurd. Examples: personal computing, outlining, the Net, the Web, Linux, open source, Cluetrain, blogging, smartphones. And some not (at least so far, or not yet in a big way): home Web servers (or "personal clouds"), desktop Linux, VRM, EmanciPay, the intention economy, MyTerms, personal AI, news commons, market intelligence that flows both ways…

Anyway, AI-style writing is now like Received Pronunciation in the UK: the way things are done.

Something I didn't know

Ben Collier in the MIT Press Reader: The Secret History of Tor: How a Military Project Became a Lifeline for Privacy

Not  looking good

Thomas P.M. Barnett on the current war:

History doesn’t grade on effort. It grades on outcomes. And right now the outcomes are running about 3-to-1 against anything resembling the vision that justified the operation in the first place.
As usual, the postwar is everything.

Free at last

NiemanLab: The Salt Lake Tribune will drop its paywall.

Climate

Millions Of Trees Planted In Africa To Remove Carbon & Restore Soil

The Giving Trees project is an endeavor from Cool Effect, a climate crisis non-profit organization. Farmers in Africa can choose trees to plant locally; the trees provide many free benefits to the local communities and the environment. Through the project’s work, the African farmers have planted over 28 million trees. ... [continued]

The post Millions Of Trees Planted In Africa To Remove Carbon & Restore Soil appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

‘Fossil-fuel imperialism’: Trump’s hankering for Iranian oil runs deep

Experts say the US believes it is entitled to resources it desires – a perspective president has supported for decades

Donald Trump said this past weekend he wants to “take the oil in Iran” by seizing control of a key export hub, echoing a refrain he has returned to for over a decade.

It’s a sign of his disregard for international law and belief in “fossil-fuel imperialism”, experts say.

Continue reading...
Pubmedia

PRX and Radiotopia Podcast Partners Earn 2026 Webby Award Nominations

More than a dozen nominees span arts, culture, science, news, and documentary

The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) announced the nominees for the 30th Annual Webby Awards. Established in 1996, the awards celebrate digital excellence, innovation, creativity, and impact.

15 PRX podcast partners are nominees, including both public media producers and independent creators spanning arts and culture, science, news, and documentary. Also nominated: two productions from Radiotopia Presents, limited series brought to listeners from PRX’s Radiotopia podcast network.

Nominees include:

Winners are announced in late April. Listeners are invited to vote for their favorites.

About PRX

Celebrating more than 20 years as a nonprofit public media company, PRX works in partnership with leading independent creators, organizations, and stations to bring meaningful audio storytelling into millions of listeners’ lives. PRX is one of the world’s top podcast publishers, public radio distributors, and audio producers, serving as an engine of innovation for public media and podcasting to help shape a vibrant future for creative and journalistic audio. Shows across PRX’s portfolio of broadcast productions, podcast partners, and its Radiotopia podcast network have received recognition from the Peabody Awards, the Tribeca Festival, the International Documentary Association, the National Magazine Awards, and the Pulitzer Prizes. Visit PRX.org for more.

PRX and Radiotopia Podcast Partners Earn 2026 Webby Award Nominations was originally published in PRX Official on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Climate

After Chemical Industry Lobbying, EPA Considers Dropping Clean Air Protections for Plastic Waste Recycling 

Environmental advocates are bracing for a potential exemption from the Clean Air Act to promote so-called “advanced” or “chemical” recycling through pyrolysis.

By James Bruggers

When former top Environmental Protection Agency official Judith Enck noticed a cavalcade of chemical and plastics industry lobbyists visiting the agency’s Washington headquarters in February, she wondered what could be up.

Climate

‘On a whole other level’: rapid snow melt-off in American west stuns scientists

Experts say brutal March heat has left critical snowpack at record-low levels – and key basins in uncharted territory

Snow surveys taking place across the American west this week are offering a grim prognosis, after a historically warm winter and searing March temperatures left the critical snowpack at record-low levels across the region.

Experts warned that even as the heat begins to subside, the stunning pace of melt-off over the past month has left key basins in uncharted territory for the dry seasons ahead. Though there’s still potential for more snow in the forecast, experts said it will likely be too little too late.

Continue reading...
Climate

German Truckers To Face Over €1,200 A Month In Additional Diesel Costs

Electric trucks now almost €1,800 a month cheaper to run than diesel. European diesel hauliers face a monthly increase in fuel costs 1.5 times higher than electric trucks, which now deliver an extra €280 in monthly savings per vehicle. In Germany, fuel cost increase for diesel trucks is over 2.5 ... [continued]

The post German Truckers To Face Over €1,200 A Month In Additional Diesel Costs appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate

Cómo la guerra en Irán afecta a la economía y la agenda climática en Latinoamérica

La guerra de Estados Unidos e Israel contra Irán está teniendo consecuencias globales, también en Latinoamérica y España: suben los combustibles, y con ellos, el resto de los precios de consumo. Mientras, la ventana de oportunidad para la transición energética en la región corre el riesgo de cerrarse por asfixia financiera.

La pregunta climática no está solo en Oriente Medio: está en cuánto espacio fiscal y político tendrá Latinoamérica para avanzar en la transición energética mientras sigue dependiente del petróleo.

LO QUE TIENES QUE SABER

El ángulo local: de Ormuz a la economía familiar

  • El impacto de esta guerra ya se siente en el bolsillo y en los fondos públicos. Los gobiernos ya están destinando dinero público a aliviar el golpe de la subida de los combustibles. Esos fondos ya no están disponibles para metas de descarbonización. Por ejemplo, en México, la subida del precio del diésel, clave para el transporte de mercancías, ha impactado en los precios de los alimentos y Hacienda ha reactivado los subsidios fiscales. 
  • El patrón es el mismo en varios países: recursos públicos que podrían destinarse a transporte limpio, eficiencia, redes eléctricas o justicia climática terminan dedicados a la defensa del sistema fósil. Y familias que ven cómo suben el combustible y la cesta de la compra, asfixiando sus economías. 

El verdadero reto para el periodista mantener el pulso en el impacto humano del aumento de los precios, sin dejar de lado el coste de oportunidad.

 

Asfixia monetaria

  • Cuando sube el petróleo, sube la inflación. Cuando sube la inflación, los bancos centrales tienden a endurecer la política monetaria, lo que encarece los proyectos renovables nuevos, que, como todo proyecto industrial, requiere de importantes inversiones iniciales. La crisis no solo hace más urgente la transición: también puede volverla más cara en el corto plazo. 

¿Cómo puede esta asfixia monetaria afectar a la transición en tu país?

 

Una transición no solo ambiental

  • La guerra es un brutal recordatorio de que la transición energética no es solo una meta ambiental, sino que es una cuestión de seguridad e independencia económica. Aunque países como Uruguay o Costa Rica han avanzado mucho en electricidad renovable, el transporte y la industria de toda Latinoamérica siguen atados a los combustibles fósiles. Cada crisis en Oriente Medio vuelve a exponer esa vulnerabilidad.
  • El hecho de que un país sea productor de petróleo o gas no lo exime de este riesgo, ya que los hidrocarburos se comercian a nivel internacional. Si sube el precio del barril, el mercado local sufre como el de un importador. Quienes sí se beneficiarán del alza de los precios son las compañías petroleras de la región, por lo que si los Estados utilizan las medidas fiscales apropiadas, podrían capturar parte de esa renta en el corto plazo.

Analiza las vulnerabilidades de tu país a los mercados de hidrocarburos e investiga qué medidas pueden amortiguar esas dependencias.

 

Nos vemos en Santa Marta

  • Por todo esto, la primera Conferencia sobre la Transición para Abandonar los Combustibles Fósiles llega en un momento distinto al que se planteaba antes del estallido del conflicto. La cita, que tendrá lugar en Santa Marta (Colombia) del 24 al 29 de abril, pasa a ser un espacio sobre la soberanía energética integral.
  • Covering Climate Now estará en Santa Marta. Si también vas a estar allí, nos encantaría tomar un café. Escríbenos a editors@coveringclimatenow.org

HISTORIAS PARA INSPIRARTE

RECURSOS PARA PERIODISTAS

LA EXPERTA

Lisa Viscidi, non-resident senior fellow y ex-directora del Programa de Energía, Cambio Climático e Industrias Extractivas del Dialogo Interamericano. Contactar a través del contacto de prensa de la organización.

A partir de esta semana, Radar Clima tiene un nuevo formato y pasa a ser semanal. Envíanos tus comentarios y cualquier trabajo periodístico que quieras que amplifiquemos a editors@coveringclimatenow.org

Necesitamos tu apoyo. Si te gusta lo que hacemos, puedes apoyarnos aquí


The post Cómo la guerra en Irán afecta a la economía y la agenda climática en Latinoamérica appeared first on Covering Climate Now.

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The post How States Are Powering America’s Clean Energy Future appeared first on CleanTechnica.

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