Environment + Energy - The Conversation - Climate change, environmental health, biodiversity, extreme weather

An aerial photo shows a residential neighborhood directly adjacent to a large data center building.

Data centers’ neighbors weigh in on how to manage them

Fengxiu Zhang, George Mason University and Saba Siddiki, Syracuse University

Trains wait in a railyard as a truck passes on a road.

Trump speculates on diesel fuel export ban as high prices ripple across US economy

Vidya Mani, University of Virginia; Cornell University

Round pools and mined walls at a rare earths mine in the desert.

How the US gave up its edge to China in processing vital rare earth minerals – and what that’s costing

Charles Edward Gehrke, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Why AI has trouble predicting the fury of hurricane intensity

Chanh Kieu, Indiana University

A satellite image shows temperatures of a hurricane seen from above

Lessons for the 21st century from a 200-year-old book by ‘Frankenstein’ author Mary Shelley

Eileen Hunt, University of Notre Dame

A person stands alone next to a lone tree in a murky foggy landscape.

Game delays for lightning may be annoying, but they save lives – a sports meteorologist explains the risk

Chris Vagasky, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lightning strikes near a soccer match, viewed from a safe angle, on Aug. 16, 2025, in Orlando, Florida.

As cities prepare for 2026’s super El Niño, some crucial blind spots can’t be ignored

Bethany Tietjen, Tufts University

A man carrying several items walks through cement passage with water in it under a bridge

A cooling tower looms above a house and grove of trees.

EPA says repealing power plant emissions rules will save billions – but its estimate leaves out health and climate costs

Akshaya Jha, Carnegie Mellon University

Iran war pushes diesel – the economy’s lifeblood – to record high prices, with no relief on the horizon

Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines and Jamie Webster, Colorado School of Mines

A lighted sign shows diesel fuel costs $6.39 a gallon.

Flood-damaged Nepal wants help from the global climate Loss and Damage Fund – but it’s still waiting, along with 118 other countries

Tarun Gopalakrishnan, Tufts University

A man looks at the remains in the aftermath of flash floods. Cement structures that were once multi-story homes and businesses are covered in mud.

A firefighter stands at the edge of a fire set to clear away brush.

Wildfire strategy doesn’t need a winner – with 3 camps fighting for dominance, the system can’t keep up with the risk

Tony Cheng, Colorado State University and Matt Thompson, Colorado State University

How soybeans took over the American diet – without anyone noticing

Edward D. Melillo, Amherst College

A large green machine moves through a field of crops.

2026’s El Niño is shaping up to be a doozy – it’s already affecting global shipping, fish behavior and heat

Steven Paton, Smithsonian Institution

A aerial view of a ship on the Panama Canal

To control weeds in your garden, late summer and early fall is the best time to make a difference

Manjot Kaur Sidhu, University of Maine

A person wearing sunglasses and work gloves works among a group of small plants.

Farmer-poet Wendell Berry’s environmental ethics were deeply rooted in his Christian faith and belief in caring for creation

Kristy Nabhan-Warren, University of Iowa

Wendell Berry laughs as he talks with activist Teri Blanton outside the capitol.

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War in the Middle East

An illustration of a person in a business suit celebrating amid a shower of money.

As oil profits skyrocket, calls for windfall taxes rise

Tibor Besedeš, Georgia Institute of Technology

Oil shortages escalate from wars in Iran and Ukraine, with few signs of relief

Amy Myers Jaffe, New York University; Tufts University

People stand on a street next to many metal cylinders.

Soaring US beef prices likely to rise further thanks to trade tensions and disease outbreaks

Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee and Charles Martinez, University of Tennessee

A Mexican ranch worker, on a horse, drives cattle into a corral for inspection for New World screwworm in Chiapas, Mexico, in July 2025.

Suspending federal gas tax wouldn’t save drivers as much as they might hope – here’s what goes into the price of a gallon of gas

Robert I. Harris, Georgia Institute of Technology

A gas station sign displays a price of $5.53 per gallon of regular gas.

When oil prices spike, where does the money go?

Matthew E. Oliver, Georgia Institute of Technology and Tibor Besedeš, Georgia Institute of Technology

A shadow of an oil pump jack over a spread of hundred-dollar bills.

Extreme weather + disasters

A satellite view of the hurricane and Hawaii

Another hurricane just sideswiped Hawaii – why the islands’ usual force field seems to be down in 2026

Nicholas Grondin, University of Tampa

How heat on the Tibetan Plateau fuels powerful storms in California, half a world away

Yongkang Xue, University of California, Los Angeles

Pyrograzing turns ordinary livestock into fire prevention heroes, so why isn’t it used on public lands more often?

Briana Swette, Boise State University and Kelly Hopping, Boise State University

A firefighter holds a tired young goat, its head leaning against his shoulder.

When a mountain falls: How ice and rock triggered Nepal’s catastrophic flood – and why climate change is raising the risks

Umesh Haritashya, University of Dayton

Houses covered in mud, several blocks from a river.

Galápagos corals show El Niño events are more extreme now than in past 1,000 years – here’s how my team made the discovery

Julia Cole, University of Michigan

A scuba diver takes a coral sample from the ocean bottom.

Wildfires can contaminate nearby homes and water systems – here’s what returning residents need to know

A home might appear fine, but toxic contamination isn’t always evident by sight or smell. An engineer share safety tips for the recovery.

Energy + infrastructure

A person wrapped in a blanket sits next to a radiator, with her hand on the heating element.

Just because the bill is low doesn’t mean energy is affordable

Destenie Nock, Carnegie Mellon University

Green roofs can help cool cities in the summer heat, but building them is only the first step – many don’t survive

Taylor Wishart, University of Tennessee

Vegetables and plants grow on a rooftop under a blue sky with tall buildings in the background.

Leaving vehicle engines idling is unhealthy, expensive – and often illegal

Richard Marcantonio, University of Notre Dame

A cloud of exhaust emerges from a vehicle tailpipe.

Electric companies don’t need to black out customers to prevent wildfires – here are 3 relatively fast, affordable solutions

Jasmine Garland, University of Colorado Boulder

Energy costs are high and unaffordable – what utilities, governments, communities and you can do to help save consumers money

Sanya Carley, University of Pennsylvania; Alexandra Klass, University of Michigan; Alison L. Knasin, University of Pennsylvania; David Konisky, Indiana University, and Shelley Welton, University of Pennsylvania

A hand holds an electric plug as its wire forms the shape of a rising-trend graph.

AI's energy demand

A large cylinder covered in marine debris is hosed off while sitting on a barge.

AI companies look to the ocean as a place to put more data centers

Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

It may be almost impossible to make data centers pay their ‘fair share’ of electricity costs

Theodore J. Kury, University of Florida

Data center fights pit social values, democracy and capitalism against each other

Lauren Mullenbach, University of Michigan

A view of open grassland with a barn and a sign reading 'No data center.'

How local communities are challenging Big Tech data centers’ noise, pollution and rising electricity bills

Rachel Mural, Harvard Kennedy School

A man stands at a lectern, speaking and gesturing, while a group of people stand and sit nearby, watching and listening.

5 ways data centers endanger their local communities and the country as a whole

Neha Gour, George Mason University; Ed Maibach, George Mason University, and Luis Ortiz, George Mason University

Large commercial or industrial buildings sit in rows near homes that line residential roads.

Biodiversity + environment

Four belugas whales underwater look directly at the photographer

Finding homes for whales and dolphins when parks like Marineland Canada close isn’t easy – a biologist explains why sea sanctuaries aren’t the answer

Jason Bruck, Stephen F. Austin State University

Fish DNA in Ozark streams reveals region’s complex geologic history

David Duvernell, Missouri University of Science and Technology

A person stands part of the way into a stream while holding a pole with a plastic bottle at the end.

More than half of Earth’s migratory bird species are declining – here’s how we can still save them

Peter P. Marra, Georgetown University and Nathan W. Cooper, Smithsonian Institution

A bird with unique spoon-shaped bill stands in water on the sand.

Beyond birds and mice, free-ranging cats eat a surprising number of insects

Christopher A. Lepczyk, Auburn University; Daniel Rubinoff, University of Hawaii, and Jean E. Fantle-Lepczyk, Auburn University

Life after death: From burned trees to bleached corals, how dead organisms live on as the building blocks of new life

Kai Kopecky, University of Colorado Boulder and John Kominoski, Florida International University

A new seedling grows at base of a burned tree.

Climate change

Two homes side by side, one mostly untouched, the other largely destroyed, with walls torn out and the roof gone.

The greenest building is the one still standing after a disaster

Fernanda Cruz Rios, Drexel University

Extreme heat is taking a toll on firefighters as wildfires stretch crews to the limit

Julian L. Gallegos, Purdue University

Firefighters working behind a low line of flames.

Ancient forests took 100,000 years to recover from past global warming – Wyoming fossils reveal what happened

Regan E. Dunn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

How do scientists know if climate change made a heat wave, extreme storm or wildfire worse?

Kevin T. Smiley, Louisiana State University ; Deepti Singh, Washington State University; Jennifer Marlon, Yale University, and Jim Hurrell, Colorado State University

Two people walk in opposite directions on a city street, one carrying an umbrella for shade and the other wiping his face with a handkerchief.

Disappearing lakes and AI are helping scientists map Arctic permafrost thaw in near-real time

Anna Liljedahl, University of Alaska Fairbanks and Ingmar Nitze, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

A scientists carrying a rifle walks along a trough pond that has drained.

Laws + regulations

Why Trump’s plan to rescind the Roadless Rule protecting national forests will struggle in court

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law & Graduate School

HOAs are often barriers to sustainable landscaping and solar energy – here’s how they could be bridges instead

Daniel Kramer, Michigan State University and Madeline Carr, Michigan State University

A neighborhood of homes, all with very similar green lawns.

Paving paradise: Dismantling the Roadless Rule threatens to disrupt wildlife, water and peace in the last quiet places in America

Mariah Meek, Montana State University and Travis Belote, Montana State University

Trump administration moves to block public from enforcing environmental protection laws

Sarah J. Morath, Wake Forest University

A view of a large industrial building complex.

Why Trump’s move to gut the Endangered Species Act likely won’t hold up in court

Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law & Graduate School

Environmental health

A young man on a dusty road with many sheep behind him.

Relentless heat and drought take a toll on herders’ physical and mental health, in Kenya and the US

Anne Pisor, Penn State and Bonface Osindi, Washington State University

From flames to haze, wildfire smoke transforms as it travels, and it can harm your health in different ways

Michael A. Robinson, University of Colorado Boulder

A person walks along the river holding a phone. Buildings that are normally clearly visible disappear into the haze in New York City.

Cyclospora spreads through human waste – so how did it get on food?

Joan Rose, Michigan State University

A sign reads 'reclaimed water being used for irrigation, do not drink or swim.'

Flesh-eating bacteria are devouring limbs in warming waters worldwide − here’s how to protect yourself

Bill Sullivan, Indiana University

Microscopy image of cylindrical blobs clumped together and filling a surface

Sargassum, the smelly nemesis of beach vacations, has become a self-sustaining disaster that will keep coming back

Xing Zhou, Georgia Institute of Technology; Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Joseph Montoya, Georgia Institute of Technology

Women carrying boogie boards walk along the shoreline, which is lined with brown seaweed for as far as the eye can see.

Agriculture + water

a field with long rows of green soybean plants at sunrise, with some indistinguishable buildings on the horizon

Why the US-Canada trade war could change how American farmers grow their crops for years

Jayash Paudel, University of Oklahoma

Controlling wild pigs can work if it’s a group effort

Chris Boyer, University of Tennessee; Aaron Smith, University of Tennessee, and Eunchun Park, University of Arkansas

Several pigs have their snouts toward the ground in a wooded area.

Better guacamole? How avocado import rules helped cut Mexico’s water pollution – it holds lessons for future US trade deals

Jayash Paudel, University of Oklahoma

Rows of avocados sliced open showing the seed.

Bird droppings were a foundation of modern agriculture and American empire

Edward D. Melillo, Amherst College

A drawing of a seabird perched on a mound, with other birds in the air and a large island in the background.

Fertilizers carry a hidden cost for soil’s crucial microbes – using less as prices rise might pay off for farms in unexpected ways

Esther Ndumi Ngumbi, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

A cross section of soybean plants in soils show their roots.

Lands of ice and snow

A black and white aquatic bird breaches the surface of the water.

Satellite images show how penguins’ diets are changing in response to Antarctic climate change

Casey Youngflesh, Clemson University

Antarctic krill fishing is now concentrated in the exact pattern conservation rules were designed to prevent

Kim S. Bernard, Oregon State University

A large ship in the middle of the ocean has booms out with lines running into the water.

US military has a long history in Greenland, from mining during WWII to a nuclear-powered Army base built into the ice

Paul Bierman, University of Vermont

A view of a mountain with dozens of rusted fuel drams left on the ground in the foreground.

A walk across Alaska’s Arctic sea ice brings to life the losses that appear in climate data

Alexandra Jahn, University of Colorado Boulder

A white landscape with blocky ridges extends under a blue sky.

Alaska’s glacial lakes are expanding, increasing the risk of destructive outburst floods

Dan McGrath, Colorado State University

Lakes the color of turquoise gem stones stand out against the white glaciers that send meltwater into them.

Critical minerals

The missing link in America’s critical minerals push isn’t mining – it’s processing expertise

Hélène Nguemgaing, University of Maryland and Alan Collins, West Virginia University

The race to mine critical minerals for AI and clean energy is creating ‘sacrifice zones’ that harm water and health of world’s poor

Abraham Nunbogu, United Nations University and Kaveh Madani, United Nations University

A man in a muddy tanktop holds a large chunk of greenish stone.

In its hunt for critical minerals, the US is misconstruing what is and is not America’s

Coalter G Lathrop, Duke University

A photo of a mechanical claw from a submersible and surrounding seafloor that appears almost paved in nodules.

Mining the ocean floor: 5 deep-sea sources of critical minerals essential to technology, and the fragile marine life at risk

Leonardo Macelloni, University of Mississippi

A mechanical claw holds a polymetallic nodule underwater

America’s next big critical minerals source could be coal mine pollution – if we can agree on who owns it