climate
Responding to the climate impact of generative AI
In part 2 of our two-part series on generative artificial intelligence’s environmental impacts, MIT News explores some of the ways experts are working to reduce the technology’s carbon footprint. The energy demands of generative AI are expected to continue increasing dramatically over the next decade. For instance, an April 2025 report from the International Energy Agency predicts…
Al Gore on China’s climate rise: ‘I would not have seen this coming’ | TechCrunch
Twenty-five years ago, Al Gore was in the final stretch of his U.S. presidential campaign, just weeks away from an election that would ultimately slip through his fingers despite winning the popular vote. His platform included ambitious climate action, with America positioned as the natural leader of a global environmental transition. The irony of what…
Simpler models can outperform deep learning at climate prediction
Environmental scientists are increasingly using enormous artificial intelligence models to make predictions about changes in weather and climate, but a new study by MIT researchers shows that bigger models are not always better. The team demonstrates that, in certain climate scenarios, much simpler, physics-based models can generate more accurate predictions than state-of-the-art deep-learning models. Their…
The Best Umbrellas to Help You Ride Out the Rain
Other Good Umbrellas to Consider There are a lot of umbrellas out there, and we’re always testing more. Here are a few others we like that didn’t quite make our list of top picks. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu Blunt Classic UV for $119: Blunt’s umbrellas are, well, blunt. No pointy bits around the canopy to poke…
‘The Wild Robot’ and ‘Flow’ are quietly revolutionary climate change movies
It’s easy to read Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot and Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow — two of the best films of 2024 — as companion pieces. Both are animated, both feature little to no human involvement, and both center on unlikely animal allies (and one incredible robot) coming together against all odds. But the similarities between…