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Microsoft, Amazon, and Google all have aggressive climate commitments—and AI partnerships with oil companies. Source: Getty Images Lots of people—way more than usual!—are reading and sharing last week’s article about a new study finding that Big Oil’s use of AI to increase production could trigger 3.3 to 13.3 times more climate pollution than the emissions from AI data centers. The attention is promising.

The Big Spring Refinery is seen on October 04, 2023 in Big Spring, Texas. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images. Until this point, the public conversation about AI and climate change has been laser-focused on the vast amount of electricity used to power the technology. For good reason. Over the last few years, the AI boom has rapidly increased society’s appetite for fossil fuels via the electricity consumption of data centers.

Alexandra Fasulo has posted hundreds of videos campaigning against renewable energy. Source: Instagram On Instagram, a young woman with dark hair stares intensely into the camera. “We’re losing our country,” the text reads. The video cuts to fields of solar panels. “This is what their ‘clean energy’ looks like,” the caption says, as footage flashes between barren trees and wire fences. “This is what it has done to our nature. Our countryside.” An April Instagram video from Alexandra Fasulo.

The sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol as smoke from wildfires in Canada fills the air on July 17, 2026. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images) If you, like me, felt angry, sad, and helplessas explosive Canadian wildfires blanketed parts of the United States in smoke this past weekend, it may be heartening to know that most Americans accept the reality of what’s going on.

Smoke from massive wildfires in Canada engulfed the New York City skyline on July 16, 2026. Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images. I said I’d be taking a break from writing this week. Well, the universe clearly has other plans, as I am trapped inside because the air is poison. All there is to do is ruminate. What’s that viral quote again?

It’s happening! Source: Getty Images Hey there! Two quick updates. First: After 16 full episodes, 4 bonus episodes, 1.42 million post views, nearly 200,000 downloads and 100,000 video views across platforms, Tracy and I are taking a little summer recess from the podcast. We will be back next month with a new season, likely streamlined and tailored based on everything we learned since our February launch (Which is a lot! I’ll tell you more soon).

This July 4 weekend has the potential to be soul-crushing. On the East Coast, a brutal heat wave is reminding everyone that the climate crisis is not some future abstraction, but an extremely scary present-tense physical condition. In Europe, another heat wave has already killed more than 1,300 people.

By now, you have probably heard that microplastics are everywhere. You may have even heard it at this newsletter. That basic idea is still true: plastic pollution is in a lot of places. But lately, some scientists have raised serious questions about some of the more viral studies claiming that large quantities of tiny plastic particles have been found in nearly every part of the human body.

As a science teacher, Helen is trained in practicing skepticism. So perhaps it was only natural that, at this year’s Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers Conference, she detected the distinct odor of B.S. She was attending a presentation by the Switch Energy Alliance, a group that provides free energy and environment lesson plans to teachers and students across North America.

People say all the time, metaphorically, that the country is on fire. Right now, the country is also actually, literally on fire. There are currently 27 uncontained large wildfires currently burning across the United States. Three near the Florida Everglades have torched an area the size of Manhattan. Another in Washington state has destroyed at least 15 homes and burned an area roughly the size of Miami.