ND Climate Change Activists

05/14/2026

The Trump administration is paying offshore wind developers nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money to abandon energy projects while the U.S. faces a looming energy shortage.

Why this is a bad deal for American taxpayers explained:
https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-2-billion-buyoff-to-cancel-offshore-wind-farms-is-a-bad-deal-for-american-taxpayers-and-the-us-energy-supply-282456

05/14/2026

The climate crisis is making the world’s oceans, which have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions, more hospitable to Vibrio.

Cover Photo: Credit Elizabeth J. Archer, Craig Baker-Austin, Timothy J. Osborn, Natalia R. Jones, Jaime Martínez-Urtaza, Joaquín Trinanes, James D. Oliver, Felipe J. Colón González & Iain R. Lake ( Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/10/vibrio-bacteria-east-coast-climate-change

05/14/2026

The volume of climate science research being published each year continues to grow. Here, I chart the yearly growth up through 2025, based on a Web of Science search method outlined in a recent peer reviewed study (cited further below).

Why does this growth matter?

Well, for lots of reasons, but as a journalist, I see it in a particular context. I look at this huge mass of research and I think, *jeez, we in the press don’t cover anything more than a tiny fraction of that.*

So how do we decide what to cover?

How do we even know what we are missing?

Although I myself have written many of them, such questions have made me more skeptical of journalistic news stories written about single scientific studies. Not only are these stories inevitably selective in what they choose to cover; but this is also the kind of journalistic story that AI will increasingly be able to replicate. Just feed in one of these 15,000 studies, and tell it to write a news story.

The upshot is that journalists today have a lot of deep thinking to do about how they cover research, in light of A) how much of it there is now and also, B) the growing power of AI. I'm posting a longer essay I've just written about this, on Substack, in the first comment below.

[Note: Data retrieved from the Web of Science using methods described in Khojasteh et al, WIREs Climate Change, 2024.]

05/13/2026

Facility would require more power than entire state uses and suck up vast amount of water in drought-stricken area

05/13/2026

A growing number of U.S. communities are pushing back against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. ⚡

According to reports, dozens of jurisdictions across the country have already restricted, paused, or blocked new data center construction projects.

The reason?

Many local officials and residents say massive AI data centers place enormous pressure on electricity grids, water supplies, and local infrastructure.

Modern AI facilities require huge amounts of computing power to train and run advanced models.

That means thousands of high-performance servers operating around the clock —
consuming vast amounts of electricity while generating extreme heat that must constantly be cooled.

Some communities fear the long-term impact could include:

• Increased water consumption
• Rising utility costs
• Strain on local power grids
• Noise pollution
• Loss of local land-use control

What was once promoted as a major economic opportunity is now becoming a heated national debate over sustainability and infrastructure limits.

The controversy intensified after several massive AI-linked projects tied to major technology companies moved forward despite public opposition from nearby communities.

As demand for artificial intelligence continues exploding worldwide, companies are racing to build more computing facilities faster than ever before.

But many towns and cities are beginning to ask a difficult question:

How much physical infrastructure should communities sacrifice to support the future of AI?

The digital revolution may feel invisible online…

but behind every AI system are enormous physical facilities consuming real-world energy, land, and resources. 🌎

05/13/2026

Extreme heat isn’t just breaking records — it’s breaking food systems.

A new UN report details how rising temperatures are devastating agriculture worldwide: from crop failures in Brazil and India to mass fish die-offs in Chile and wildfire-fueled losses across North America. The warning is clear. Climate change is no longer a future threat to food production; it’s happening now.

But while the report tracks the damage to crops and livestock, critics say it overlooks the billions of farmworkers facing dangerous, often deadly, heat exposure every day.

As one researcher put it: “The workers are present in the diagnosis, but largely absent in the prescription.”

The climate crisis is also a labor crisis, and protecting the people who feed the world must be part of the solution.

Read more: https://www.vox.com/climate/488188/climate-crisis-crops-failing-worker-heat-groceries?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=app.dashsocial.com%2Fvoxdotcom%2Flibrary%2Fmedia%2F672489265

📸: Farm workers w**d a pepper field in the sun as Southern California faced a heat wave, in Camarillo, July 2024. Etienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images

05/13/2026

The rapid growth of AI is already reshaping how communities think about energy, water, and industrial development. Large technology companies are racing to build more data centers to support chatbots, image generators, search systems, cloud computing, and increasingly complex AI models. Those facilities require enormous amounts of electricity and generate enormous amounts of heat. In many cases, water is used to keep those systems cool enough to operate safely.

The AI boom is not just a software story. It is a physical infrastructure fight over water, electricity, public resources, and Big Tech power.

05/12/2026

You're not imagining it. Electricity prices are surging. ​

​The Trump administration is doubling down on expensive fossil fuels and using AI data centers to justify keeping coal plants running and building new methane gas plants. ​

Clean energy is the cheapest and fastest way to meet rising electricity demand, but this administration is jeopardizing our clean energy future to prop up dirty fossil fuels.

05/12/2026

05/12/2026

The North Dakota Resource Management Plan did not come out of nowhere.

It was finalized after five years of consultation and input from two dozen Tribes. That input helped secure protections for drinking water, clean air, sacred sites and wildlife habitat.

Then Congress used the Congressional Review Act to wipe it out.

That sends a pretty clear message. The voices of Tribal communities were welcomed during the process, then tossed aside when it was politically convenient.

Years of work. Gone.