The data center showdown in Lackawanna County

As AI drives a boom in massive, power-hungry data centers, tech companies are targeting small, vulnerable communities for sprawling “hyperscale” complexes. In Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna County, the tiny borough of Archbald, facing five proposed facilities, has become a flashpoint in a growing nationwide backlash over who pays the price for the digital future.

When the Saints go marching out: New Orleans and the resilience of cities

A recent study published in Nature Sustainability concluded that New Orleans residents should plan now to move away from the city. For the hundreds of thousands who live in New Orleans, and the millions of others who love the Crescent City, this is an incredibly sad conclusion. And it’s a conclusion that many other cities rich in culture and history around the world will face as sea levels rise.

The restoration of farms and farmers: Why Denmark is rethinking industrial agriculture

Farmer organisations should stop selling agriculture as just another industry and instead reclaim it as a mission rooted in land stewardship and care for animals and ecosystems. But with many farmers locked into debt and infrastructure that bind them to the current model, meaningful change can’t rest on farmers alone, the responsibility rests with society at large.

We’re measuring extreme heat better than ever. The human toll still goes underreported

Heat warning tools have become more sophisticated, yet public attention is still focused on record temperatures rather than the social conditions that turn heat into illness or even death. Why social risk, not temperature alone, should be at the center of how we report on extreme heat.

Relationality: Rebuilding the connections that sustain life

This chapter of the Seeds Series explores “relationality” as a foundation for regenerative cultures, drawing on insights from various interviewees to show how empathy, accountability, place-based belonging, and interdependence can help heal the social and ecological fractures of modern life.

For 6,000 years humanity controlled water. Climate change is changing the equation

For 6,000 years, human societies have sought to control water through ever-larger infrastructure. As climate change brings more extreme floods, droughts and heatwaves, a growing number of cities are exploring a different path: adapting to water’s rhythms rather than trying to dominate them.

Nandita Bajaj: Confronting patriarchy, pronatalism, and population denial

Nandita Bajaj, executive director of Population Balance, defies stereotypes. She chose not to have children and has dedicated her life to research and advocacy on how pronatalism, overpopulation, and human supremacy fuel social inequality and ecological overshoot, and to confronting tough questions about humanity’s outsized footprint on Earth.