We are told the digital economy is weightless, a realm of pure information. Yet its most critical physical infrastructure—the data center—consumes water at alarming rates, governed by America’s oldest and most divergent water laws. This creates hidden sacrifice zones where technological progress is paid for with the foundational resource of communities that can least afford to lose it.
Read MoreArtificial intelligence is transforming commercial, governmental, and scientific sectors at a pace unmatched by prior technological shifts. However, its rapid integration into the daily life of many Americans introduces a regulatory challenge the law is not yet prepared to manage. The core legal gap is straightforward: no federal or state regulatory framework currently requires evaluation, disclosure, mitigation, or planning for the electricity demand created by large-scale AI and data-center growth, despite the fact that these facilities are projected to reshape U.S. energy consumption within the decade.
Read MoreRenewable energy sources have existed for centuries but in recent decades, have become key to combatting climate change. Prioritizing energy sources with low carbon footprints is critical to managing and reversing temperature increases, water shortages, and other negative impacts that have resulted from generations of fossil fuel use. While wind has been instrumental to this energy transition, offshore wind has greater potential than traditional onshore wind due to the size difference of the turbines. Not only does offshore wind have higher energy capacity but can do so in a much smaller physical footprint than onshore wind. Though the European Union (EU) has been the front runner in offshore wind development, the United States (U.S.) has made tremendous progress over the past two decades with more growth on the horizon.
Read MoreKnown for its commitment to sustainability, Sweden has consistently ranked among the top 10 countries globally for exceptional environmental performance for over a decade. Being the first country in the world to pass an environmental protection act in 1967 and host the first ever UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, Sweden was a pioneer in sparking conversation related to the treatment and conservation of the environment.
Read MoreArtificial intelligence (AI) has grown exponentially in both its development and use, and in many ways has become inescapable. AI is technology that collects, processes, and uses data to simulate human intelligence processes via technological machines, most commonly computers.
Read MoreWater and solar energy are the building blocks of life—especially in the arid West. An emerging technology takes advantage of both has the potential to provide 50% of the world’s ongoing energy needs through a clean, green new technology: Floating photovoltaics (FPVs). Alternatively known “aquavoltaics”1 (AVs), “floating solar arrays,” or “floatovoltaics,” FPVs can increase sustainable energy production while decreasing the costs and ecological concerns related to terrestrial solar arrays.
Read MoreHydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. It is a colorless, odorless gas that has been brought center stage in the debate around renewable energy.
Read More“It’s like Dr. Seuss down there,” according to Diva Amon, a scientist who studies the marine floor, describing the incredible sea life and geologic formations in an area known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), which may soon be opened to the first-ever deep sea mining of polymetallic nodules.
Read MoreIt’s no secret that carbon dioxide (CO2), among other greenhouse gases, plays a major part in climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement, a binding international treaty adopted in December 2015, set forth an ambitious goal: “limit the [global] temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
Read MoreIt is not a surprise that electric cars have been growing in popularity. Furthermore, both governments and automakers are promoting electric cars as the vehicles of the future and a “key technology to curb oil use and fight climate change.”
Read MoreSeventy percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. 14 of the world’s largest cities sit on coastlines. Fifty percent of all Americans live within 50 miles of a coast.
Read MoreWhen we hear “climate change” or “global warming,” what we are really hearing about is an overabundance of carbon dioxide, or CO2, and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change, including periods of global warming, has always been part of Earth’s history, but the warming period we are in now is problematic because it is man-made.
Read MoreIn classic science fiction, buildings are imagined as towering skyscrapers made of either glass-like materials or perhaps something that has not yet been developed. A recent push for the…
Read MoreClimate change has already made hurricanes stronger. Scientists agree that as carbon dioxide from human activities accumulates in the atmosphere and oceans continue to warm, hurricanes will only…
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