EJToday is a daily weekday digest of top environment/energy news and information of interest to environmental journalists, independently curated by Editor Joseph A. Davis. Sign up below to receive in your inbox. For queries, email EJToday@SEJ.org. For more info, read an EJToday FAQ. Plus, follow EJToday on social media at @EJTodayNews, and flag stories of note by including the @EJTodayNews handle on your posts. And tell us how to make EJToday even better by taking this brief survey.
Want to join the EJToday team? Volunteer time commitments can vary from just an hour a month up to a daily contribution, and would involve helping to curate content of interest. To learn more, reach out to the director of publications, Adam Glenn, at sejournaleditor@sej.org.
Note: Members have additional options to choose from (you'll need your log-in info).
"As the new school year kicks off, school districts are facing a challenging math problem: the high cost of diesel. The price of a gallon of diesel is up nearly $2 compared with this time last year. That is meaningful for schools, considering that around 90% of the United States' 480,000 school buses run on diesel."
"‘Godzilla’ event currently brewing could push 50 million people into acute hunger before the end of next year"
"The largest planned AI datacenter in New Jersey is being accused of violating federal law after a visual investigation found the site running dozens of unpermitted gas-powered generators."
"The Trump administration has approved two new datacenter chemicals to which exposure can result in “sudden death” and a range of other serious health risks, like cancer, eye corrosion, neurological damage and reproductive harm, a new lawsuit warns."
"From humpbacks learning the latest songs to sperm whales’ ‘clan codas’, drones and AI learning are helping reveal another dimension to the concept of culture "
"A handful of mega data center projects would emit over 100 million tons per year of greenhouse gases, an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country."
"Dr. Adam Kalkstein is suing the U. S. Military Academy, where he was a professor of geography and the only climate scientist, after being fired." "After 17 years of teaching science at West Point, Dr. Adam Kalkstein says he was suddenly ordered last year to cut from his curriculum information about the human causes of climate change, according to a new lawsuit filed against the U.S. Military Academy."
"Growing up with dirty air harms kids’ health. But reducing pollution can help reverse the damage."
"The artificial intelligence race is creating demand for more than data centers and electricity. It is also creating a new market for the chemicals needed to keep increasingly powerful computer chips from overheating. Some of those cooling technologies rely on PFAS, a broad class of fluorinated compounds already responsible for widespread drinking water contamination in North Carolina."
"The Make America Healthy Again movement has taken on many issues over the past few years: pesticides, processed foods, vaccines. Now it has another target, and it’s one that President Trump likes to promote: coal."
"A major Canadian oil and gas company reported dozens of incidents at its pipelines after the provincial regulator exempted thousands of its pipelines from normal clean-up timelines."
"The country’s biggest energy market has a problem: It can’t build enough power plants to keep up with electricity demand." "More than 50 GW of solar, wind, and batteries can now connect to PJM’s grid. It could help drive down costs — if states, utilities, and hyperscalers make it happen."
"Climate change is causing glaciers to retreat and become less stable, upping the odds of catastrophic collapses." "Roughly 160 people are dead and hundreds more—including dozens of international tourists—are missing after flash floods hit a region on the mountainous border of Nepal and Tibet on Wednesday."
"The Trump administration move is “politically motivated,” said the plaintiff, one of the nation’s leading environmental gr�oups."
"One of the nation’s largest environmental groups is challenging the Trump administration’s closure of a leading climate institute, filing a lawsuit Thursday [Aug. 20] in federal court saying the closure is unlawful.
"Climate journalism is crucial, but it’s not enough. Release the comedians!"
