Recent articles
August 27, 2026
Submit Your Questions: The Great Data Center Backlash
You have questions about data centers, and WIRED has answers. Join our livestream on September 10 and our panel of experts will tell you everything you need to know.
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August 26, 2026
How Rising Temperatures Likely Contributed to Nepal’s Deadly Flood
Climate change is causing glaciers to retreat and become less stable, upping the odds of catastrophic collapses.
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August 26, 2026
Candidates Are Signing a Pact Promising Action on Data Centers and AI Safety
More than 15 politicians from across the country have signed on to the AI Pact, vowing to regulate data centers and AI. “We’ve got to get this right,” says Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn.
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August 25, 2026
Data Centers Are Driving an Alarming Gas Power Expansion in the US
There’s no clearer sign of the data center boom than rampant gas projects that have been proposed or that are already under construction.
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August 21, 2026
The Super El Niño Won’t Fix the West’s Water Crisis
“People have talked about the Colorado River crisis for decades—we’re now in it,” says one expert. “Everyone you talk to is like, ‘Shit, man.’”
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August 14, 2026
The Real Reason Data Center Gas Power Plants Are So Dirty
A massive new gas plant in Texas will be built with much less efficient technology than regular gas plants. It’s far from the only data center power project to rely on dirty turbines.
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August 11, 2026
AI Could Help Fossil Fuel Companies Create More Emissions
New research finds that by making the fossil fuel industry more productive, AI could help increase carbon emissions by up to nearly 5 percent—vastly outpacing the impact of data centers.
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August 6, 2026
ICE’s DNA Collection Increases, SpaceX’s Rocket Crashes Into the Moon, and the AI Backlash Grows
In today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how ICE has been collecting DNA samples of people with no criminal convictions, including children, which end up in an FBI database indefinitely.
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August 6, 2026
Two Fossil Fuel Companies Are Betting Big on Data Centers
Chevron and Williams are big winners in the race to power artificial intelligence as they build out gas-fired power plants and pipelines.
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August 5, 2026
Cougars Lower the Risks of Car Crashes by Hunting Deer
A new study shows how the big cats cause deer to move away from roads and deeper into the forest, where they pose less of a hazard to motorists.
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August 4, 2026
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
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July 31, 2026
The World Is Too Hot. El Niño Is Partly to Blame
Heat waves are simultaneously hitting Europe, North America, and Asia, driven in part by the hot waters in the tropical Pacific—and climate change.
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July 29, 2026
How to Bring a Geothermal Well Back from the Dead
Startup Zanskar has created one of the most productive geothermal wells in the US at a power plant that had been in decline for years.
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July 24, 2026
AI firms want more data centers; Trump's EPA may give neighbors less say
Rule would allow states to decide how much—if any—public input there can be.
arstechnica.com
July 23, 2026
The Trump Administration Wants to Change Public Engagement Rules for Polluters
The EPA has proposed a rule change that would let states decide how much input the public has on air pollution permits. It would be a huge boon for data centers increasingly reliant on fossil fuels.
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July 21, 2026
Abdul El-Sayed Is an Epidemiologist Running for Senate. His State Is a Public Health Disaster
Michigan has been at the epicenter of the wildfire smoke and explosive diarrhea outbreaks. The progressive Democrat talks to WIRED about how he would tackle the forces behind them if he’s elected.
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July 15, 2026
The Northeast Is Being Blanketed in Canadian Wildfire Smoke
Roughly 100 wildfires are raging out of control in Ontario, sending smoke streaming more than 1,000 miles from their origin.
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July 14, 2026
New York Governor Signs First Statewide Data Center Moratorium
“We have no choice but to address the challenges created by these massive facilities,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said. The executive order will pause construction for one year.
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July 10, 2026
Microsoft Reports a Massive 25 Percent Jump in Emissions
Data centers are driving up the company’s use of electricity—and carbon pollution.
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July 8, 2026
Dimming the Sun Would Help Lower the Risks of El Niño
As worries about a growing super El Niño mount, new findings suggest a radical solution to mitigating its impacts.
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July 3, 2026
3 Nuclear Startups Hit a Big Milestone. Why It Matters—and Why It Doesn’t
The companies’ Fourth of July plans include celebrating new reactor designs coming online. But there’s still a long way to go before they deliver energy at a meaningful scale.
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June 29, 2026
The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics
Climate activist Will Lawrence cofounded the Sunrise Movement. Now, he has shifted his focus in his attempt to compete for a swing-district seat by calling for a data center moratorium.
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June 23, 2026
Even the Internet’s Favorite Pool Guy Doesn’t Know How to Fix the Reflecting Pool
Algae blooms, peeling paint, and a host of fixes from hydrogen peroxide to nanobubblers have made it hard to diagnose what’s wrong with the Reflecting Pool—let alone how to clean up the mess.
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June 16, 2026
Why the Reflecting Pool Is Full of Algae After Trump's Renovation
Warm weather has fueled a bloom that National Park Service workers are trying to kill using everything from hydrogen peroxide to nanobubbles ahead of July 4 celebrations.
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June 16, 2026
DOJ Lawyers Argue xAI Is ‘Vital’ for National Security in NAACP Lawsuit
In a bid to dismiss a lawsuit over xAI's polluting gas turbines, the Justice Department claimed the company is integral to military operations—including the Iran War.
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June 15, 2026
The US Government Is Letting a Key Data Center Regulation Expire
The federal government is planning to let a rule regulating federal data center operations sunset in September with no replacement.
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June 12, 2026
China Didn't Make People Hate Data Centers
GOP lawmakers, tech investors, and even OpenAI have tied the anti-data center movement in the US to Chinese interference. Experts say it’s much more complicated than that.
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June 11, 2026
People Living Near xAI’s Dirty Data Centers Are Furious About the SpaceX IPO
Elon Musk is set to make hundreds of billions even as communities in Mississippi and Tennessee are fighting to stop the gas turbines powering xAI's supercomputers.
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