"Kevin O’Leary’s plans to build the world’s biggest data centre in a drought-stricken part of Alberta highlights the big questions and concerns about the resource demands of artificial intelligence"

"Corn monocropping emits higher levels of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas which traps heat in the atmosphere more than 300 times as effectively as carbon dioxide. Simple interventions could drastically reduce emissions, experts say."

"The chair of stalled UN plastics treaty talks, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, is preparing to step down, after accounts of behind-the-scenes pressure from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep)." "In August, global talks at the UN headquarters in Geneva to agree on a treaty to deal with accelerating plastic pollution collapsed after three years of negotiations. There is currently no deal and the future of the agreement is unclear."

"The European Commission on Friday announced restrictions on the use of so-called "forever chemicals" in firefighting foams."

"An illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon and is accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region to profit from record gold prices, according to a report."

"The White House is offering “concierge, white glove service” to oil, coal and other fossil fuel companies that are seeking to gain fast approval for their projects, according to an energy official, while simultaneously slowing down or blocking solar and wind projects."

"A Navajo tribe-owned company bid $186,000 to lease 167 million tons of coal on federal lands in southeastern Montana on Monday in the biggest U.S. coal sale in more than a decade. The offer from the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC) equates to one-tenth of a penny per ton, underscoring coal’s diminished value even as President Donald Trump pushes to mine and burn more of the heavily polluting fuel."

"Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, according to a new analysis."

"Public health advocates pushed back when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to delay for two years a requirement that steel companies monitor air quality at the perimeters of their 11 coke plants in Western Pennsylvania and across the country. Two groups sued. Now, the EPA has reversed course."

"Exxon Mobil will postpone its plans for a large new plastics production plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas, according to the company. Construction was initially planned to begin next year on the $10 billion facility in rural Calhoun County."