Emma Jacobs

A graph showing that most new data center growth is in Las Vegas and Phoenix and SLC

So the greatest growth of water intensive Data Centers for AI slop is in the arid West that’s experiencing a record drought. Yep, makes perfect sense. (Data courtesy @highcountrynews.org)

Oof. Not good. Sorry.

Take a Balloon Ride on Radio Garden Listen, look and guess where you are!

What an incredible project and love letter to radio. radio.garden/balloon-ride

Flimmaker Ken Burns: Public broadcasting is a 'purely American expression' Filmmaker Ken Burns tells NPR's Michel Martin about the role that federal funding has played in his documentary work and the potential impact of the loss of that funding on children's programming.

Filmmaker Ken Burns tells NPR's Michel Martin about the role that federal funding has played in his documentary work and the potential impact of the loss of that funding on children's programming.

What a Quebec-style controversy in Belgium. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/w...

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew in the @theglobeandmail.com on wildfire-related evacuations in the province:

Opinion | Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death

"If there were justice in the world, Musk would never be able to repair his reputation... Musk’s sojourn in government has revealed severe flaws in his character — a blithe, dehumanizing cruelty, and a deadly incuriosity. This should shape how he’s seen for the rest of his public life."

This order is going to *most directly* impact your local public radio member-stations.

I am begging the #HardFork podcast team to go read any of their own paper's reporting on environmental impacts of AI before they go uncritically repeating "good ideas" like waiving environmental regulations to power AI data centers.

We did!

If Flow does not win best animated film tonight, something has gone terribly wrong.

338Canada Seat Projection chart showing a precipitous drop in support for the federal conservatives and a sharp rise in support for the liberals since the us inauguration cdnpoli

the change in the canadian electoral landscape since the us inauguration is really something to see

Meanwhile, someone has x-country skied to my local coffee shop.

Anecdotal signs that despite the trade war “delay”, some Canadians are still making changes, including boycotting the Superbowl.

Wait for it….

Even as the Los Angeles fires and a rapidly melting Arctic all but scream that climate breakdown is worsening, some of the most accomplished journalists on the climate beat have had their jobs threatened or eliminated.

Beat reporting works.

“So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once."

And we get to do this all again in another month.

❤️

This. And a thing YOU can do is to support media you care about.

Transport is the biggest source of US emissions. The US transportation secretary has ordered the removal of the words "climate change" and "greenhouse gas emissions" from all departmental material.

By contrast, 4 years ago, the fact that Trudeau was Biden's first call to a foreign leader as President got covered as a sign of the return to a more normal US-Canada relationship.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Had exactly the same reaction to that.

Wow, Trudeau just said in his press conference he's been trying to speak with Trump since the inauguration, but hopes to speak with him soon.

From @shannonkoneil.bsky.social's @cfr.org analysis of President Trump's new #tariffs:

Meanwhile, in Canada ...

Wow. it must feel terrible when someone takes something you made and uses it without permission or payment

Pretty big deal. @bookshop-org.bsky.social is selling ebooks now. You can now support indies while purchasing digital books.

bookshop.org/ebooks

Déprimant.