The Energy-Hogging, Water-Sucking Scourge of Big Tech, Visualized
Crypto miners chase cheap energy—even setting up shop on oil and gas pads to utilize methane that otherwise would be flared. This image depicts a flare mitigation center in Montana.Crusoe Energy This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The gradual shift of life away from the three-dimensional…
How Fossil Fuels Play Into Putin’s Ukraine Strategy
Alexei Nikolsky/AP This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. What is the relationship between Russia’s Ukraine actions and the gas price crisis? Gas prices are soaring globally, largely because of the resurgence of demand for fossil fuels after the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, depleted storage and the difficulty of…
Big Pharma Pricing Is a Racket. These Startups Aim to Disrupt It.
Mark CubanDamairs Carter/MediaPunch /IPX/AP This story was originally published by Undark and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In 2015, Martin Shkreli became the smirking face of drug company greed when, as founder and then-chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, he bought rights to the anti-parasitic medication Daraprim and then jacked up the price from $17.60 to…
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Wants You to Know Why SCOTUS Is FUBAR
Sen. Whitehouse during the October 2020 confirmation hearings for Trump Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.Greg Nash/Zuma Press This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The US Senate is not a crowded, rambunctious place like Britain’s House of Commons or other more lively legislative bodies around the world.…
That Time Edmund Hillary Set Out in Pursuit of the Yeti
Famed mountaineer Edmund Hillary displays a yeti rendering at a 1960 news conference before departing for the Himalayas.Bettmann archive/Getty Images This story was originally published by Atlas Obscura and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. September 9, 1960 — Kathmandu hums with the discordant music of drums and flutes. People disguised as dancing deities have…
Study Finds Arctic Plants Are Thriving. That Could Be a Problem.
Hairgrass (Deschampsia) and pearlwort are the only two native flowering plants in Antarctica.Gary Braasch/Zuma Press This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Antarctica’s two native flowering plants are spreading rapidly as temperatures warm, according to the first study to show changes in fragile polar ecosystems have accelerated…