"Company-wide metrics from the environmental disclosure of data center operators suggest that AI systems may have a carbon footprint equivalent to that of New York City in 2025, while their water footprint could be in the range of the global annual consumption of bottled water. Further disclosures from data center operators are urgently required to improve the accuracy of these estimates." https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(25)00278-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2666389925002788%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

"The wealthy world has been burning vast resources on a zero-sum status competition — in which workers must perpetually increase their consumption just to “keep up with the Joneses.” By abandoning such spiritually corrosive consumerism — and embracing more egalitarian and communal ways of life — rich countries can downsize their economies and uplift their people simultaneously."

Vox

Can money buy Americans happiness?

The real cause of America’s “vibecession.”

Big Tech tells us it can't exist without forever chemical (PFAS). A pity these chemicals are killing us. "It is estimated that 836 kg/yr of volatile PFAS are emitted from US landfills in uncollected gas with a 95% confidence interval (2.5% to 97.5% of the distribution) of 15–5,590 kg/yr. This estimate is comparable to ∼600 kg of PFAS released annually into landfill leachate." https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.5c08763

A book on AI ethics full of fake citations You can't make this stuff up. Publisher under fire after ‘fake’ citations found in AI ethics guide A book published by Springer Nature includes dozens of questionable citations, including references to journals that do not exist https://www.thetimes.com/article/8f7d14db-dfd3-4776-8538-f5ce0a5707b2?shareToken=405c6237994f00a2e6ac41636e4ce159

"The research reveals that LLMs can be overconfident in their own answers yet quickly lose that confidence and change their minds when presented with a counterargument, even if the counterargument is incorrect. Understanding the nuances of this behavior can have direct consequences on how you build LLM applications, especially conversational interfaces that span several turns." https://venturebeat.com/ai/google-study-shows-llms-abandon-correct-answers-under-pressure-threatening-multi-turn-ai-systems

"The City of Lowell announced Friday that it will suspend its participation in a proposed data center. According to a post on the city's Facebook page, Lowell will resume engagements in the project if and when the prospective tenant provides specific details about their water and wastewater asks."

WWMT

Lowell halts participation in data center project over lack of water, wastewater details

The City of Lowell announced Friday that it will suspend its participation in a proposed data center.

"Despite being valued at billions of dollars, data center companies like Switch are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies. Annually, Nevada spends $139 million in public subsidies for data centers. That means that taxpayers like us foot the bill twice: first, we give data center companies a massive tax break to build in Nevada. Then, we pay for the energy upgrades and ongoing energy use they require through our increased utility bills." https://nevadacurrent.com/2025/12/12/dirty-data-centers-will-drive-up-our-utility-bills/

Data Center Growth Draining Global Water Supplies A new report says the race to build data centers amid booming AI demand is a serious threat to the world’s water supply. We have a global water crisis. Big Tech is accelerating it. Big Tech greed will destroy life on earth. It has no bottom.

DataCenterKnowledge

Data Center Growth Draining Global Water Supplies

A new report says the race to build data centers amid booming AI demand is a serious threat to the world’s water supply.

Arizona city rejects data center after AI lobbying push Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's intervention in a local rezoning effort has sparked a fight over local control. “If you can’t show me what’s in it for Chandler, then we are not having a conversation,” Ellis said before voting against the project. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/12/arizona-city-rejects-data-center-after-ai-lobbying-push-00688543

Gas Networks Ireland recently announced plans to build a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminal near Kildysart Co. Clare and gave the local community just 24 hours notice of a public meeting. As Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment, the decision to build the terminal falls under Darragh O Brien's remit and it is important to put public pressure on him and to highlight the negative implications of the proposal. Please sign and share:

Google Docs

Open Letter to Minister Darragh O Brien, Department of Climate, Energy and Environment

December 2025 A LNG terminal in Clare in the middle of a climate crisis? (Link to sign letter:https://forms.gle/4qATrN8MsB3Mhw4v5) Dear Minister O�...