Tootfinder

One of those news days that will confuse some people: China's coal "output" (mining) grew 1.2% y/y to a record high in 2025, but "output at coal plants" (burning it in power plants) fell 1%, so stockpiles grew and prices fell.

⚡ All UKRAINIAN power plants have been damaged by RUSSIA! #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/16/all-ukrainian-power-plants-have.html

Nifty preprint with an experiment coevolving Brassica rapa with pollinating, herbivorous butterflies. With bumblebee co-pollinators or heat stress added, the plants evolved stronger anti-herbivore defense; with both bees and heat, they evolved... to attract butterflies?
https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.06.686

Seeing the discussion, I’d like to clarify:
This post is not a statement on #nuclear energy. I was responding to the specific article that I shared, where @… reported that tech companies are “using AI to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants.”
My point is - cutting corners and trying to “speed up” the construction or operation of nuclear power plants can have CATASTROPHIC effects.
Chernobyl was a disaster of mismanagement, cost cutting, and insufficient safety procedures.
I do not trust AI, a technology that is notoriously probabilistic and inconsistent in outputs (and with famously high error rates) to be reliable and competent for a use case where the risks are this high.
I also do not support the mindset of wanting to “speed up” ANY regulatory processes and safety checks when it comes to constructing nuclear power infrastructure.
Licensing is not a “bottleneck” here. It’s a safety prerogative.
(Thanks @… for bringing this to my attention!)

CO2 is #JunkFood for plants.
Food becoming more calorific but less nutritious due to rising carbon dioxide
https://www.theguardi…

CO2 is #JunkFood for plants.
Food becoming more calorific but less nutritious due to rising carbon dioxide
https://www.theguardi…

"Scientists named 190 new plants and fungi species in 2025 – including gruesome spider-killing fungus"
#Plants #Fungi

Gruesome fungus and a ‘demon’ plant: The new species named in 2025
Scientists warn that human activities are “eroding nature to the point of extinction” after releasing a list of new species named in 2025.

»Tech companies are betting big on nuclear energy to meet AIs massive power demands and they're using that AI to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants.«
What could possibly go wrong. Trust me, I'm an engineer. 🤦
Full story over at @…:

Power Companies Are Using AI To Build Nuclear Power Plants
Tech companies are betting big on nuclear energy to meet AIs massive power demands and they're using that AI to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Wow, loving our greenhouse - already have the first tomatoes turning red! Only a couple weeks into summer (not even proper summer, 22 Dec in Aotearoa, yet) Crazy! This is months before we've ever had ripening fruit pre-greenhouse.

Many people suggest that coal-fired power is on the rise in China. In real life, it's not anymore. Massive expansion of wind and solar capacities does eat into coal's share, whether or not new power plants come online.
https://energyandcleanair.org/china-en

China energy and emissions trends: December 2025 snapshot – Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air

Power Companies Are Using AI To Build Nuclear Power Plants https://www.404media.co/power-companies-are-using-ai-to-build-nuclear-power-plants/

"...detailed how the company would use AI to speed up licensing. In [Microsoft’s] conception, existing nuclear licensing documents and data about nuclear sites data would be used to train an LLM that’s then used to generate documents to speed up the process."
JESUS MOTHERFUCKING CHRIST
https://www.404media.co/power-companies-are-using-ai-to-build-nuclear-power-plants/

Extreme floods are slashing global rice yields faster than expected #environment

Extreme floods are slashing global rice yields faster than expected
Scientists discovered that a week of full submergence is enough to kill most rice plants, making flooding a far greater threat than previously understood. Intensifying extreme rainfall events may amplify these losses unless vulnerable regions adopt more resilient rice varieties.

Sources: Trump and several state governors agree to direct grid operator PJM to hold an auction for tech companies to fund new power plants due to AI demand (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-15/trump-…

Cutting-Edge Facility Generates Pure Water and Hydrogen Fuel from Seawater for Mere Pennies https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/cutting-edge-facility-generates-pure-water-and-hydrogen-fuel-from-seawater-for-mere-pennies/

Cutting-Edge Facility Generates Pure Water and Hydrogen Fuel from Seawater for Mere Pennies
This new installation beats out previous flagship desalination plants in Saudi Arabia and California in terms of cost-effectiveness.

"The railroad industry is slow to adopt new things" [electrified lines].
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/how-us-freight-rail-industry-got-dirtier-than-coal-power-plants-2025-12-14…

Turns out plants are quite touchy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv-iluydZOo

😅 When indoor plants go overboard: Too much greenery can raise stress levels, research finds
#stress

When indoor plants go overboard: Too much greenery can raise stress levels, research finds
Indoor greenery enhances well-being, but new research shows that too much can overwhelm people. The findings could guide the design of healthier indoor environments.

Is anybody counting up the carbon footprint of AI? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? https://merveilles.town/@lrhodes/115900810202010965

"Rise in Chinese off-grid coal plants in Indonesia belies pledge to end fossil fuel support"
#Indonesia #FossilFuels #Energy

Rise in Chinese off-grid coal plants in Indonesia belies pledge to end fossil fuel support
A surge in the supply of Chinese-backed coal-fired power plants built to supply electricity to Indonesia’s fast-growing nickel mining and processing sector is undermining Beijing’s efforts to dial back support for fossil fuels, a study released Nov. 3 has found. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly four years ago, China’s president, Xi Jinping, […]

plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…

#WaZiAq

Russia seeks to disconnect Ukraine's nuclear power plants, HUR says, risking potential meltdown: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/17/russia-seeks-to-disconnect-ukraines.html

Urban Adventure 🏞️
城市探险 🏞️
📷Nikon FE
🎞️Fuijfilm NEOPAN SS, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Finally I did some printing again! ❤️
It took me a bit to get into the right settings again but I have a nice A5 print now 🙂
Good that I just recently ordered some ink as the black was pretty low already.
#photography #printing

“We got interested in this because other researchers, for years, have been describing this type of ecological memory
of soil microbes having some way to remember from their ancestors' past,”
“We thought this was really fascinating. It has a lot of important implications for how we can grow plants, including things like corn and wheat.
Precipitation itself has a big influence on how plants grow,
but also the memory of the microbes living in those soils could also p…

New study explores ‘legacy effects’ of soil microbes on plants across Kansas
Click for more on research in Nature Microbiology

So good. Russian robot face plants to Rocky theme song.
#Robot #Russia

Nearly 47 million Americans at high risk of potential health hazards from fossil fuel infrastructure, study finds https://phys.org/news/2025-11-million-americans-high-potential-health.html

Nearly 47 million Americans at high risk of potential health hazards from fossil fuel infrastructure, study finds
Fossil fuels release pollutants into the air when extracted and burned, but there's more to their production than massive oil rigs diving deep into Earth and smoky power plants. Those processes are examples of only the first and last—and generally most visible—moments in a fossil fuel's five-stage journey.

Series D, Episode 01 - Rescue
[Interior Xenon base lounge. Soolin sets out glasses on a tray. She stops, regards the tray and then takes another glass from the shelf. She begins to pour wine into the glasses. Dorian leads the group into the lounge. Dorian grabs her and kisses her.]
SOOLIN: Are you all right?
https://blake.torpi…

Never been prouder of my Twin Cities than at this moment. ICE is terrorizing our city and all I've seen between neighbors is kindness. This morning at the coffeeshop I watched a man buy a meal for a stranger. There's a group gathering in front of me to knit hats for donation. I didn't choose to live through this moment in history, but if I have to I couldn't pick a better place. For those of you outside MN, please consider calling your senators, representatives, local governm…

Dozens of plants in Russia’s armored-vehicle conglomerate are not under sanctions, Ukraine’s intelligence says: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/09/dozens-of-plants-in-russias.html

So I grew up next to #Chernobyl and this is, well, TERRIFYING.
A story for y’all: I’m from a city called Zhytomyr, 2 hours west of Kyiv in the North of #Ukraine. We were downwind of the Chernobyl #nuclear power plant when the 1986 disaster happened.
I wasn’t born for another 12 years, but my childhood was filled with stories and the aftermath of it all. Things like:
- My grandmother worked as a head doctor in a hospital and rehabilitation facility exclusively for children of Chernobyl victims to treat the extremely high prevalence of Tuberculosis and other severe health complications. (To specify: these were SECOND GENERATION of exposure).
- A lot of the kids in that facility were orphans, because their parents died young from health problems.
- My uncle’s wife was born in Pripyat. She was 1 year old when the disaster happened. Her parents were told to evacuate while given no information about what happened. They had to pack up their things and rush out to an unfamiliar city with their baby, never to see the rest of their belongings, apartment, or hometown again.
- When I was a kid, it became so common to see weirdly mutated animals and insects that even 2-3 year olds would make jokes about “Chernobyl mosquitos” and I wouldn’t even flinch seeing occasional giant bugs, dark frogs, weird-looking dogs.
- We’d frequently hear of nearby farms having issues with their animals being born too mutated to survive or random outbreaks from contaminated water / food. Crops would randomly fail. People would get poisoned on a regular basis. This all got less common as I grew up.
- My mother still remembers being a little girl, 10 years old, and looking outside from their balcony at the clouds blowing over from Chernobyl that day. People were told to not go outside and to shut all the windows, but not given an explanation as to why. My mother swears that the rain looked different. They weren’t able to go and buy more food for the kitchen for multiple days.
Anyway - nuclear safety isn’t a joke. I don’t understand how this level of carelessness can happen after Chernobyl and Fukushima.

https://www.404media.co/power-companies-are-using-ai-to-build-nuclear-power-plants/

Scientists spend 50 years ironing the kinks out of nukes and nuke procedures to make them the safest they've ever been, finally rehabbing nuclear's image sufficiently in the minds of Millennials that new plants can be built, and then these lazy jackwads decide to have ChatGPT do the paperwork.
Toss them in the cooling pond! (They'll be fine, it's not radioactive.)

This is nature on the island of #Norderney as me, @…, and @… visited it du…

plant_pol_robertson: Robertson plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators, from southwestern Illinois, USA.
This network has 1884 nodes and 15265 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/plant_pol_robertson

#SilentSunday #plants #HousePlants #Terminalia

🌴 Making LAZY plants stand up: Research reveals new pathway plants use to detect gravity
#plants <…

Making LAZY plants stand up: Research reveals new pathway plants use to detect gravity
A study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has revealed a previously unknown pathway plants use to detect gravity and orient the direction they grow in. Publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study may one day open the door for improvements in crop cultivation.

“As we consider these three risks, we don’t have to speculate about how AI data centers might affect Massachusetts. Consider Ireland, a country with a similar population size, where AI has driven a data center boom. Warehouses full of servers are on pace to use one-third of Ireland’s electricity, drawing from fossil-fuel power plants and wind farms alike. That keeps old, dirty plants on the grid, sucks up renewable energy that otherwise would help replace fossil fuels, and drives up costs fo…

The often mentioned "But China and India are still building new coal power plants" - true - doesn't mean that the amount of electricity they generate from coal goes up. Actually, it went down last year, and the amount of coal used probably went down faster thanks to the increased efficiency of the fleet.

Analysis: Coal power drops in China and India for first time in 52 years after clean-energy records - Carbon Brief
Coal power generation fell in both China and India in 2025, after each nation added record amounts of clean energy

Ukraine has no undamaged power plants amid unprecedented strikes, Shmyhal says: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/16/ukraine-has-no-undamaged-power.html

Around 56 million years ago,
Earth suddenly got much hotter.
Over about 5,000 years, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere drastically increased and global temperatures shot up by some 6°C.
As we show in new research published in Nature Communications,
one consequence was that many of the world’s plants could no longer thrive.
As a result, they soaked up less carbon from the atmosphere,
which may have contributed to another interesting thing about this pre…

56 million years ago, the Earth suddenly heated up – and many plants stopped working properly
It could be a sign of what’s to come.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
Worries And Other Plants:
🎵 Changin Me
#WorriesAndOtherPlants
https://niceguysweare.bandcamp.com/track/changin-me
https://open.spotify.com/track/0ohz67ESfEL7m6xYGRPTHu

Metropolitana VI - Asymmetry ✅
城 VI - 非对称 ✅
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Ilford Pan 100
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

GM lays off 1,700 workers making EVs and batteries in Michigan, Tennessee - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/10/weak-ev-demand-sees-gm-lay-off-1700-workers-at-two-plants/

"How to build giant solar plants in mountainous areas"
#SolarPower #Energy #Renewables

How to build giant solar plants in mountainous areas
Chinese researchers have proposed a new methodology for designing utility-scale solar power projects in mountainous regions. They simulated a 386.4 MW solar farm near Pu’er, a city in southern China located 1,037 meters above sea level.

Analysis: since 2023, data center power demands have delayed 15 coal plants' retirements; the Trump administration has ordered two power plants to remain open (Ariel Wittenberg/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/27/a

"The results speak for themselves. Today, Uruguay produces nearly 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, with only a small fraction—roughly 1%–3%—coming from flexible thermal plants, such as those powered by natural gas. They are used only when hydroelectric power cannot fully cover periods when wind and solar energy are low. The energy mix is diverse: while hydropower accounts for 45%, wind can contribute up to 35% of total electricity, and biomass—once considered a waste probl…

"The reason for the carnage? The plant life was overgrown and limiting visibility for drivers, DPW says."
Looking at the photo of median, it's pretty clear that DPW assumes people are driving Go-Karts, not cars. Just one example of why the proposed Street Tree legislation allowing "the Director" to make non-appealable decisions re street trees is based on false assumptions of infallibility.
An artist spent a decade beautifying her Divisadero block. The …

San Francisco guerrilla garden ripped out for Divisadero Street replanting
An artist had tended to plants in NoPa for 10 years until city workers removed the greenery.

"The reason for the carnage? The plant life was overgrown and limiting visibility for drivers, DPW says."
Looking at the photo of median, it's pretty clear that DPW assumes people are driving Go-Karts, not cars. Just one example of why the proposed Street Tree legislation allowing "the Director" to make non-appealable decisions re street trees is based on false assumptions of infallibility.
An artist spent a decade beautifying her Divisadero block. The …

San Francisco guerrilla garden ripped out for Divisadero Street replanting
An artist had tended to plants in NoPa for 10 years until city workers removed the greenery.

An 8-year study of plants and pollinators in a Mediterranean community in southern Spain shows they're all flowering and active earlier as climate warms, but also a little less likely to overlap with interacting species
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.70046

Artist #BoramieSao will be visiting campus on January 24. We're putting up her painting that's part of our collection AND borrowing its companion piece as part of the exhibition "We, Too, Are Made of Wonders." The two paintings are mirror images, one dark, one light. Read on to learn a little more about the artist and her work.

🏜️ Death Valley plant yields blueprint for building heat-resilient crops
#plants

Death Valley plant yields blueprint for building heat-resilient crops
In California's Death Valley, where summer temperatures regularly soar above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, life seems almost impossible. Yet among the cracked earth and blinding sunlight, one native plant not only survives—it thrives.

plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…

"Congo Reforestation Solutions: Student Group Plants 2,000 Trees to Fight Deforestation"
#Congo #Trees #Deforestation

Congo Reforestation Solutions: Student Group Plants 2,000 Trees to Fight Deforestation | Happy Eco News
Congo reforestation solutions developed by Green Congo Initiative have planted 2,000 trees across eastern provinces. The student-led organization trains youth in environmental conservation while addressing annual forest loss of 500,000 hectares. Community-based programs include climate education, sustainable agriculture, and native species planting to restore degraded ecosystems.

Sources: the US nears a trade deal with Taiwan that would reduce tariffs on the island's exports and include a commitment from TSMC to build 5 fabs in Arizona (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/business/economy/trump-taiwan-deal.html

Trump Administration Nears Trade Deal With Taiwan
The deal would cut tariffs and include a commitment from Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, the island’s chip giant, to build more manufacturing plants in the United States.

DOJ, CISA warn of Russia-linked attacks targeting meat processing plants, nuclear regulatory entities and other critical infrastructure https://therecord.media/doj-cisa-warn-russia-hackers-targeting-critical-infrastructure

For decades, some big polluters were allowed to estimate their emissions using methods the government knew were often unreliable.

Real Pollution Levels: Air monitors at coke manufacturers, chemical plants and other industrial facilities showed far higher emissions than the estimates, records viewed by ProPublica show.

Trump Halts New Rules: The Trump administration has halted rules requiring more than 130 industrial plants to install air monitors and comply with new e…

The EPA Let Companies Estimate Their Own Pollution Levels. We Discovered Real Emissions Are Far Worse.
The Trump administration has put a stop to EPA rules that would have required more than 130 industrial facilities to install air monitors to measure pollution. Millions of people living near these plants face an increased risk of cancer.

"Winter blooming of hundreds of plants in UK ‘visible signal’ of climate breakdown"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate

Light pollution: The silent threat to the planet that's easily solved #environment

Light pollution: The silent threat to the planet that's easily solved
New research has revealed for the first time the full extent of how "Artificial Light At Night" (ALAN) is increasing carbon released by plants and animals across continents—without any increase in the carbon they absorb. The result is reduced carbon storage in ecosystems—which has major implications for climate models and global carbon budgets.

Series B, Episode 04 - Horizon
[Teleport section]
AVON: [Snapping on a bracelet] What do these detectors look like?
ORAC: Logic would suggest they are camouflaged - in plants.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/204/536 B7B3

"Specialist" and "generalist" are surprisingly slippery categories— biology abhors a binary— but quantifying the shared evolutionary history of plants eaten by insects introduced to North America let these authors predict their plant-damaging impacts https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70083

🐲 Denmark inaugurates rare low-carbon hydrogen plant
#hydrogen

Denmark inaugurates rare low-carbon hydrogen plant
Denmark inaugurated one of Europe's few low-carbon hydrogen plants on Monday, a sector touted as a key to cleaner energy but plagued with challenges.

plant_pol_robertson: Robertson plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators, from southwestern Illinois, USA.
This network has 1884 nodes and 15265 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/plant_pol_robertson

"Trump’s DOE may soon force more coal plants to stay open"
#US #USA #America #FossilFuels

Trump’s DOE may soon force more coal plants to stay open
Colorado coal plants are likely to face DOE orders to keep running past planned closure dates, even as the costs of keeping an old Michigan plant open…

Before plants or animals, fungi conquered Earth’s surface #nature

Before plants or animals, fungi conquered Earth’s surface
Fungi’s evolutionary roots stretch far deeper than once believed — up to 1.4 billion years ago, long before plants or animals appeared. Using advanced molecular dating and gene transfer analysis, researchers reconstructed fungi’s ancient lineage, revealing they were crucial in shaping Earth’s first soils and ecosystems.

TRAP! ⚡️ Putin will "give" Ukraine GAS after blowing up all the thermal power plants!: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/12/trap-putin-will-ampquotgiveampquot-ukraine.html

The Broken & The Relics 🧱
断壁残垣 🧱
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ ERA 100, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

"Plant sex life is more complicated than you probably imagine"
#Plants #Nature
https://

Plant sex life is more complicated than you probably imagine
The amazing variety of plant reproductive systems.

🌾 Growing rice in the UK 'not so crazy' as climate warms
#rice

Growing rice in the UK 'not so crazy' as climate warms
Wearing large rubber boots, Nadine Mitschunas joyfully handled mature rice plants peeking through the water of her small plot growing in the fertile soil of eastern England.

plant_pol_robertson: Robertson plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators, from southwestern Illinois, USA.
This network has 1884 nodes and 15265 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/plant_pol_robertson

Few know the lengths to which the Trump administration is paving the way -- and the part it's playing
-- in deregulating a highly regulated industry
to ensure that AI data centers have the energy they need to shape the future of America and the world
To say the nuclear people are bullish on AI is an understatement.
“I call this not just a partnership but a structural alliance.
Atoms for algorithms. Artificial intelligence is not just powered by nuclear ene…

‘Atoms for Algorithms:’ The Trump Administration’s Top Nuclear Scientists Think AI Can Replace Humans in Power Plants
A presentation at the International Atomic Energy Agency unveiled Big Tech’s vision of an AI and nuclear fueled future.

🔥 Strikes on Russia: Plants Burning in Orenburg and Samara #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2025/10/20/strikes-on-russia-plants-burning.html

"Winter blooming of hundreds of plants in UK ‘visible signal’ of climate breakdown"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate

Boston Dynamics unveils a new iteration of its Atlas humanoid robot designed to work in Hyundai's plants starting in 2028, including at a factory in Georgia (Hyonhee Shin/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

🎲 Randomness reveals hidden order in the plant world
#plants

Randomness reveals hidden order in the plant world
In the intricate architecture of plant tissues, beauty often emerges from chaos, according to new research from Cornell researchers. Findings from a recent study show how randomness and growth together create the striking cellular patterns that shape plant organs—and perhaps all multicellular life.

plant_pol_robertson: Robertson plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators, from southwestern Illinois, USA.
This network has 1884 nodes and 15265 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/plant_pol_robertson

Farmers focus on what will sell, leaving new options unexplored
This thread will highlight plants with higher Optimal Growing Temperature,
and that don’t depend on seasonal cycles or flower in late season.
#climatechange #foodsecurity

"Italy clears 710 MW of solar in Puglia, challenges regional PV rules"
#Italy #SolarPower #Energy #Renewables

Italy clears 710 MW of solar in Puglia, challenges regional PV rules
The italian government says it is fast-tracking utility-scale solar, approving about 710 MW of mainly agrivoltaic projects in Puglia while moving to curb regional limits on where PV plants can be built, sharpening tensions over land use and energy policy.

😋 Gene editing creates compact goldenberry plants suitable for large-scale farming
#food

Gene editing creates compact goldenberry plants suitable for large-scale farming
Goldenberries taste like a cross between pineapple and mango, pack the nutritional punch of a superfood, and are increasingly popular in U.S. grocery stores. But the plants that produce these bright yellow-orange fruits grow wild and unruly—reaching heights that make large-scale farming impractical.

plant_pol_robertson: Robertson plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators, from southwestern Illinois, USA.
This network has 1884 nodes and 15265 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/plant_pol_robertson

Metropolitana II🔶
城 II🔶
📷 Pentax MX
🎞️ Ilford Pan 100
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Electricity demand from data centers powering the AI boom has caused a gas turbine supply crunch, as the US becomes the epicenter of new gas-fired power plants (Financial Times)

The fallout from the AI-fuelled dash for gas
A supply crunch in giant turbines for gas-powered plants threatens environmental and geopolitical consequences

A great chasm in the gorge at Treman State Park which was cut by a waterfall
#photo #photography #waterfallwednesday

☢️Russia attacks substations near nuclear power plants – a nuclear threat to Europe! #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2025/11/09/russia-attacks-substations-near-nuclear.html

China's efforts to slow land degradation and climate change
by planting trees and restoring grasslands
have shifted water around the country in huge, unforeseen ways, new research shows.
Between 2001 and 2020, changes in vegetation cover reduced the amount of fresh water available for humans and ecosystems in the eastern monsoon region and northwestern arid region,
which together make up 74% of China's land area, according to a study published Oct. 4 in the jo…

China has planted so many trees it's changed the entire country's water distribution
Huge "regreening" efforts in China over the past few decades have activated the country's water cycle and moved water in ways that scientists are just now starting to understand.

plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…

"These 15 Coal Plants Would Have Retired. Then Came AI and Trump."
#US #USA #America #FossilFuels

These 15 Coal Plants Would Have Retired. Then Came AI and Trump.
Utilities started reversing coal power’s “irreversible” decline. Will it last?

Extinctions ‘already happening’ in Wales as report lists 3,000 at-risk species https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/extinctions-already-happening-in-wales-as-report-lists-3000-at-risk-species/
…

Extinctions ‘already happening’ in Wales as report lists 3,000 at-risk species
Nearly 3,000 species in the country of Wales, in the U.K., are now found in just a handful of locations, according to a recent report. These species include hundreds of plants, fungi and mosses, as well as 25 bird, six mammal, five freshwater fish and one amphibian species. The report, produced by Natural Resources Wales […]

Russia targeted substations powering nuclear plants during large-scale overnight energy attacks, Sybiha says: https://benborges.xyz/2025/11/08/russia-targeted-substations-powering-nuclear.html

plant_pol_robertson: Robertson plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators, from southwestern Illinois, USA.
This network has 1884 nodes and 15265 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/plant_pol_robertson

This is more Communist than anything Xi or Putin does or says
Trump:
All United State Defense Contractors, and the Defense Industry as a whole, BEWARE:
Defense Contractors are currently issuing massive Dividends to their Shareholders and massive Stock Buybacks, at the expense ano detriment of investing in Plants and Equipment.
This situation will no longer be allowed or tolerated!
Until they do so,
no Executive should be allowed to make in excess of $5 M…

🦠 Genomes of 24,000 previously unknown microbes revealed by new tools
#microbes

Genomes of 24,000 previously unknown microbes revealed by new tools
QUT researchers have recovered the genomes of more than 24,000 previously unknown microbial species—some from entirely new branches of life that likely evolved before plants and animals. The microbes are detailed in two studies published in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Methods.

"South Korean decision to close all coal-fired power plants by 2040 sounds alarm for Australian exports"
#SouthKorea #FossilFuels #Energy

plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…

"Satellites are now tracking big polluters around the world"
#Pollution #AirPollution

Satellites are now tracking big polluters around the world
Climate Trace is mapping data from power plants, factories, and other industrial facilities.

My wife says that these are annual-type 𝑅𝑢𝑑𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑎 which makes sense because I found them in an annual bed a few weeks ago
#photo #photography #flowers

Tehran says Russia will build eight new nuclear power plants in Iran: https://benborges.xyz/2025/11/02/tehran-says-russia-will-build.html

plant_pol_kato: Kato plant-pollinator web
A bipartite network of plants and pollinators from Kyoto University Forest of Ashu, Japan, from 1984 to 1987. Edge weights represent frequency of interactions.
This network has 772 nodes and 1206 edges.
Tags: Biological, Food web, Weighted
https://networks.skewed.d…

PARTISANS go active in Russia’s BORDER regions, hitting MILITARY plants #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2026/01/02/partisans-go-active-in-russias.html

"Greenwashing, illegality and false claims: 13 climate litigation wins in 2025"
#Greenwashing #Climate #ClimateChange