Quilicura is a community in Chile that is facing water scarcity, in large part because so many water-cooled AI data centres are located there. To raise awareness of the problem, they brought together a group of local experts to answer people’s AI queries for a day. It’s an imaginative campaign and a good reminder that humanity’s greatest reserves of true intelligence lie in people, relationships and community.
The Climate Fiction Prize has announced its shortlist for 2026. Some intriguing entries on this impressively international selection.
Earlier this week I mentioned that net zero requires a certain degree of offsetting for some essential industrial processes that can’t be decarbonised. For balance, here’s an example of offsetting as a disingenuous distraction: a new platform from Aerovolt allows people to buy carbon credits from electric plane flights. Someone flies an electric plane, and you can pay to pretend it was you – though that’s not how the marketing blurb describes it of course. No carbon has been reduced, so this isn’t real offsetting. Worse, at this point almost all electric planes are tiny and flown for leisure, so this scheme essentially subsidises wealthy hobbyists and calls it climate action.
Edible spoons are an idea that the internet got excited about almost exactly a decade ago, as an attempt to replace single use plastics. They’re available but haven’t exactly caught on. Now the first firm to make them in the UK is having another go, with Eddy’s providing edible spoons to a deli in London, with the hope of rolling them out more widely.
The world’s largest compressed air energy storage facility has come online in China. Air is pumped into salt caverns when renewable energy production is abundant, and released through a turbine to generate electricity when needed. It is large enough to power 600,000 homes.
Latest articles
Your role in climate finance
When I hear the term ‘climate finance’, I think of banks, governments and and big institutional funders. I think about the UN, the IMF, and international conferences where multi-billion dollar funding streams are negotiated. It turns out I might have had it upside down. Out of curiosity, I downloaded the latest Global Landscape of Climate…
What we learned this week
There is growing concern over the the El Nino cycle and the possibility of record heat next year. Here’s Bill McKibben on the topic, and David Wallace Wells. Less gloomy voices are also available, but now is a good time to be talking about summer heat and how we prepare for it. 11,103 new cars…
How South Korea cut food waste
My new food waste bin went out to the curb this morning. Like most of us in Luton, my family was given two blue plastic caddies last month for the start of food waste collection in the town. We’re one of the regions of the UK that hasn’t had food waste collected until now, and…
The Earthbound Report 
Eddy’s Teaspoons of Change!! I remember the post from 10 years ago and still think it is a great idea… If only I was a capitalist marketing mogul 😉