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Rewiring the Brain: Poverty Linked With Neurological Changes That Affect Behavior, Illness, and Development

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Thursday, April 25, 2024

A new review highlights how poverty and low socioeconomic status significantly influence cognitive development, mental health, and educational outcomes, suggesting that these factors contribute to a cycle of generational poverty. It calls for comprehensive interventions to address these far-reaching impacts.Research connects low socioeconomic status to brain alterations impacting educational achievement, mental health, and language development.What influences mental health, academic achievement, and cognitive growth? A recent review published in De Gruyter’s Reviews in the Neurosciences indicates that poverty and low socioeconomic status (SES) are significant contributing factors. While previous research has explored the individual impacts of poverty on the brain and behavior, this review introduces the first integrated framework. It synthesizes evidence from various studies to directly connect brain alterations caused by low SES with behavioral, pathological, and developmental outcomes.SES refers to the social standing of an individual or family, and involves factors such as wealth, occupation, educational attainment, and living conditions. As well as affecting day-to-day life, perhaps surprisingly SES can also have far-reaching consequences for our brains that begin in childhood and persist into adulthood.So, how can poverty and low SES change the brain? The review examines the negative effects of poor nutrition, chronic stress, and environmental hazards (such as pollution and inadequate housing conditions), which are more likely to affect low-SES families. These factors can impair the brain development of children, which in turn can influence their language skills, educational attainment, and risk of psychiatric illness. Stress and Its Impact on LearningFor instance, families with low SES are more likely to experience increased stress levels, and these can affect their children from an early age. Sustained stress can reduce levels of neurogenesis — the growth of new neurons — in the hippocampus, which may impair learning abilities and negatively affect educational attainment and career opportunities in later life.A framework of poverty-related factors and future consequences, such as delay language development, poor educational attainment, and neural abnormalities. Credit: Eid Abo Hamza et al./De GruyterThe unified framework proposed by the researchers also helps to explain generational poverty, which can leave the children of SES families unable to escape their situation when they grow up and become parents themselves. This vicious cycle can be hard to break.Interestingly, the researchers provide an extensive list of proposed studies that could test the validity of their framework and find new ways to break the generational poverty cycle. These include focusing on the effects of low SES in specific brain regions, and identifying techniques to enhance the performance of affected children in school.The review is timely, as inequalities in society widen. Identifying specific mechanisms behind generational poverty could help researchers and policymakers to develop new early interventions. The new framework takes account of the multifactorial nature of generational poverty, and could pave the way for more holistic and sophisticated societal interventions that acknowledge this complexity.“This research sheds light on the profound ways in which poverty and SES affect not just the present living conditions of individuals, but also their cognitive development, mental health, and future opportunities,” said Dr. Eid Abo Hamza of Al Ain University in the United Arab Emirates, who is first author of the review. “By understanding these relationships, society can better address inequalities and support those in disadvantaged situations, potentially leading to interventions that can help break the cycle of poverty.”Reference: “The impact of poverty and socioeconomic status on brain, behaviour, and development: a unified framework” by Eid Abo Hamza, Richard Tindle, Simon Pawlak, Dalia Bedewy and Ahmed A. Moustafa, 15 April 2024, Reviews in the Neurosciences.DOI: 10.1515/revneuro-2023-0163

Research connects low socioeconomic status to brain alterations impacting educational achievement, mental health, and language development. What influences mental health, academic achievement, and cognitive growth?...

Digital Human Brain Network Concept

A new review highlights how poverty and low socioeconomic status significantly influence cognitive development, mental health, and educational outcomes, suggesting that these factors contribute to a cycle of generational poverty. It calls for comprehensive interventions to address these far-reaching impacts.

Research connects low socioeconomic status to brain alterations impacting educational achievement, mental health, and language development.

What influences mental health, academic achievement, and cognitive growth? A recent review published in De Gruyter’s Reviews in the Neurosciences indicates that poverty and low socioeconomic status (SES) are significant contributing factors. While previous research has explored the individual impacts of poverty on the brain and behavior, this review introduces the first integrated framework. It synthesizes evidence from various studies to directly connect brain alterations caused by low SES with behavioral, pathological, and developmental outcomes.

SES refers to the social standing of an individual or family, and involves factors such as wealth, occupation, educational attainment, and living conditions. As well as affecting day-to-day life, perhaps surprisingly SES can also have far-reaching consequences for our brains that begin in childhood and persist into adulthood.

So, how can poverty and low SES change the brain? The review examines the negative effects of poor nutrition, chronic stress, and environmental hazards (such as pollution and inadequate housing conditions), which are more likely to affect low-SES families. These factors can impair the brain development of children, which in turn can influence their language skills, educational attainment, and risk of psychiatric illness.

Stress and Its Impact on Learning

For instance, families with low SES are more likely to experience increased stress levels, and these can affect their children from an early age. Sustained stress can reduce levels of neurogenesis — the growth of new neurons — in the hippocampus, which may impair learning abilities and negatively affect educational attainment and career opportunities in later life.

Integrative Framework of the Links Between Brain and Behavioral Abnormalities Due to Poverty

A framework of poverty-related factors and future consequences, such as delay language development, poor educational attainment, and neural abnormalities. Credit: Eid Abo Hamza et al./De Gruyter

The unified framework proposed by the researchers also helps to explain generational poverty, which can leave the children of SES families unable to escape their situation when they grow up and become parents themselves. This vicious cycle can be hard to break.

Interestingly, the researchers provide an extensive list of proposed studies that could test the validity of their framework and find new ways to break the generational poverty cycle. These include focusing on the effects of low SES in specific brain regions, and identifying techniques to enhance the performance of affected children in school.

The review is timely, as inequalities in society widen. Identifying specific mechanisms behind generational poverty could help researchers and policymakers to develop new early interventions. The new framework takes account of the multifactorial nature of generational poverty, and could pave the way for more holistic and sophisticated societal interventions that acknowledge this complexity.

“This research sheds light on the profound ways in which poverty and SES affect not just the present living conditions of individuals, but also their cognitive development, mental health, and future opportunities,” said Dr. Eid Abo Hamza of Al Ain University in the United Arab Emirates, who is first author of the review. “By understanding these relationships, society can better address inequalities and support those in disadvantaged situations, potentially leading to interventions that can help break the cycle of poverty.”

Reference: “The impact of poverty and socioeconomic status on brain, behaviour, and development: a unified framework” by Eid Abo Hamza, Richard Tindle, Simon Pawlak, Dalia Bedewy and Ahmed A. Moustafa, 15 April 2024, Reviews in the Neurosciences.
DOI: 10.1515/revneuro-2023-0163

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Kennedy's Vaccine Advisory Committee Meets to Discuss Hepatitis B Shots for Newborns

A federal vaccine advisory committee is meeting in Atlanta to discuss whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born

A federal vaccine advisory committee convened Thursday in Atlanta to discuss whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they're born.For decades, the government has advised that all babies be vaccinated against the liver infection right after birth. The shots are widely considered to be a public health success for preventing thousands of illnesses.But U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s committee is considering whether to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive, which would mark a return to a public health strategy that was abandoned more than three decades ago. For other babies, it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate.Committee member Vicky Pebsworth said a work group was tasked in September with evaluating whether a birth dose is necessary when mothers tested negative for hepatitis B.“We need to address stakeholder and parent dissatisfaction" with the current recommendation, she said.The committee makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how already approved vaccines should be used. CDC directors almost always adopted the committee’s recommendations, which were widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs. But the agency currently has no director, leaving acting director Jim O'Neill to decide.The panel has made several decisions that angered major medical groups.At a June meeting, it recommended that a preservative called thimerosal be removed from doses of flu vaccine even though some members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm. In September, it recommended new restrictions on a combination shot that protects against chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella. The panel also took the unprecedented step of not recommending COVID-19 vaccinations, even for high-risk populations such as seniors, and instead making it a matter of personal choice.Several doctors groups said the changes were not based on good evidence, and advised doctors and patients to follow guidance that was previously in place.Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection that, for most people, lasts less than six months. But for some, especially infants and children, it can become a long-lasting problem that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer and scarring called cirrhosis.In adults, the virus is spread through sex or through sharing needles during injection drug use.But it can also be passed from an infected mother to a baby. As many as 90% of infants who contract hepatitis B go on to have chronic infections, meaning their immune systems don’t completely clear the virus.In 1991, the committee recommended an initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Over about 30 years, cases among children fell from about 18,000 per year to about 2,200.But members of Kennedy's committee have voiced discomfort with vaccinating all newborns.Cynthia Nevison, an autism and environmental researcher, presented at the meeting. Nevison has written opinion pieces published by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy organization Kennedy previously led. She also co-authored a 2021 article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders that the publication retracted after concerns were raised about the paper’s methodology and about nondisclosed ties between the authors and anti-vaccine groups.Another presenter was Mark Blaxill, a co-author of the retracted paper, who spoke about vaccine safety.In the past, committee meetings have relied on presentations by the CDC scientists involved in tracking vaccine-preventable diseases and assessing vaccine safety. The agenda for this meeting listed no CDC scientists, but rather featured a prolonged public airing of anti-vaccine theories that most scientists have deemed as discredited. Kennedy is a lawyer by training. Aaron Siri, a lawyer who worked with Kennedy to sue vaccine makers, is listed as a presenter on Friday on the topic of the immunization schedule for U.S. children.The current guidance advises a dose within 24 hours of birth for all medically stable infants who weigh at least 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms), plus follow-up shots to be given at about 1 month and 6 months. The committee is expected to vote on language that says when a family decides not to get a birth dose, then the vaccination series should begin when the child is 2 months old.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

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My father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, died fighting for a clean Nigeria. Thirty years on it’s time to stop sucking on the dirty teat of the oil cash cow | Noo Saro-Wiwa

In 1995, as one of the Ogoni Nine, he was hanged after protesting against Shell’s oil pollution. With education and a move towards renewable energy, we can honour his legacyEarlier this year, my father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and his eight colleagues, known collectively as the Ogoni Nine, were pardoned for a crime they never committed. After peacefully campaigning against environmental degradation of Ogoniland in Nigeria at the hands of the oil industry, they were imprisoned by the military dictatorship on false charges of treason and incitement to murder, following a trial condemned by the international community as a sham.On 10 November 1995, the men were executed by hanging. Continue reading...

Earlier this year, my father, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and his eight colleagues, known collectively as the Ogoni Nine, were pardoned for a crime they never committed. After peacefully campaigning against environmental degradation of Ogoniland in Nigeria at the hands of the oil industry, they were imprisoned by the military dictatorship on false charges of treason and incitement to murder, following a trial condemned by the international community as a sham.On 10 November 1995, the men were executed by hanging.Thirty years on, the government of President Bola Tinubu granted a pardon to the Ogoni Nine. While our families welcome this as a step in the right direction, it is not enough – a pardon suggests that these nine innocent men committed a crime. Although the court of public opinion recognises their innocence and courage, it is important that they are officially exonerated. The refusal of successive governments to do this speaks volumes. It speaks of a corrupt cabal that has ruled Nigeria directly and indirectly over the past few decades and continues to stifle any attempt to honour my father’s memory.But that legacy can never be suppressed. Ken Saro-Wiwa and thousands of brave Ogoni protesters ensured that Shell Oil pulled out of Ogoniland in 1993. Since then, the multinational has been held to account for some of its environmental damage and was ordered to pay compensation for oil spills including the disaster in Bodo in 2008. Shell subsequently divested from the Niger delta earlier this year and sold its onshore leases to a local consortium (which raises further concerns about their liability for past oil spills). My father’s death led to the creation of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (Hyprep), which continues its task of cleaning up the hydrocarbon pollution in Ogoniland, albeit with mixed results.Pollution levels are still unacceptably high. Militancy, the sabotaging of pipelines and illegal refining have further damaged the environment, and now, high unemployment and the cost of living crisis have compelled some Ogonis to call for the resumption of oil extraction. While I fully sympathise with their wishes, welcoming back the oil companies would be an insult to my father’s memory and a huge step backwards. The industry, even if properly managed, is not labour intensive and it benefits a relative few. Its continued extraction elsewhere in the delta offers a cautionary tale. Last year, I drove through the Obrikom oil and gas field, about 50 miles (80km) northwest of Ogoniland, where I saw crude petroleum gushing furiously from a broken pipe and into a river. The sight of that blackened water was horrifying. That the pipeline wasn’t fixed for months was even more appalling.Activists from Extinction Rebellion protest outside the Shell Centre on the 25th anniversary of the execution of the Ogoni Nine, 10 November 2020 in London, UK. Photograph: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty ImagesIronically, I witnessed that leak while on my way to visit a renewable energy project that I was involved with as a consultant. A solar power plant has now been installed in Umuolu, enabling the remote riverine community to rely entirely on clean energy. There are no oil spills and no tensions about who will be employed by the energy company. Residents fish and farm the land, which is how it should be. Why suck on the dirty teat of the petroleum cash cow when we have incredible natural assets? In September, I visited a conservation project, the SW/Niger Delta Forest Project, where Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh and her team are doing a sterling job of conserving a slice of the Apoi Creek, a primary rainforest that is home to the last most-significant population of the Niger Delta red colobus monkey, bush pigs, the African pied hornbill, water chevrotains, the mangabey and other species. The forest is a glimpse into our beautiful ecological past and a preview of what could be regained under the right stewardship. Ikemeh’s team have successfully educated the Apoi community about protecting the forest and its wildlife rather than eating it.My father understood that our wealth lies in our ecology and in education, and that we could one day move away from oilIt is an education sorely needed elsewhere in the region. Just a few weeks ago, on an Ogoni Facebook group page, I saw a photo of a live giant leatherback turtle that had been dragged into a village after washing up on shore. I was amazed and excited, yet in the comment section people discussed whether it should be eaten or not. Meanwhile, in places such as Tobago and Costa Rica, tourists pay thousands of dollars to come and see turtles like that. The animal’s appearance on our shores, though rare, proves that wildlife still exists in the Niger delta’s lushly vegetated creeks, rivers and beaches. Accommodating nature and farming is a huge conundrum, of course, but there’s an economy that can be created by leveraging our natural assets. Crucially, it requires moving towards non-polluting, renewable energy that can power our small businesses cleanly and reliably, and boost the economy.My father understood that our wealth lies in our ecology and in education, and that we could one day move away from oil, especially if it enriches everyone else at the Ogonis’ expense. I remember him showing me and my siblings around the garden in our house in Port Harcourt, teaching us about the flowers and the fireflies. Through the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation, which will relaunch in the coming months, I hope we can boost education and bring solar energy to Ogoniland and gradually transform it into a place of non-oil entrepreneurship, agriculture and natural beauty that will honour my father’s legacy.Noo Saro-Wiwa is the author of Looking For Transwonderland (Granta) and Black Ghosts: A Journey Into the Lives of Africans In China (Canongate)A Month And A Day: A Detention Diary, by Ken Saro-Wiwa, is published by Ayebia Clarke Publishing

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White House Begins Mass Firing of Federal Employees Amid Shutdown War

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Russell Vought, the White House budget director, announced that the administration has begun firing federal workers en masse.Vought warned last week that “consequential” layoffs were forthcoming amid the ongoing government shutdown. On Friday, he tweeted, “The RIFs have begun,” referring to “reductions in force.”Vought, as anticipated, is now using the government shutdown to cull the federal workforce, fulfilling Trump’s recent vow to cut “vast numbers of people out,” as well as slash programs that he says Democrats “like.”An unnamed White House official told MSNBC’s Vaughn Hillyard, “We expect thousands of people to unfortunately be laid off due to the government shutdown.” CNN’s Alayna Treene reports that a White House official said that fired workers have begun receiving notices and, “It will be substantial.”Agencies poised to be affected, according to Politico, include the Departments of the Interior, Treasury, Commerce, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.Reacting to Vought’s four-word social media announcement, the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 820,000 government workers, shot back: “The lawsuit has been filed.” The AFL-CIO told Vought, “America’s unions will see you in court.”This story has been updated.

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A.I. Is on the Rise, and So Is the Environmental Impact of the Data Centers That Drive It

The demand for data centers is growing faster than our ability to mitigate their skyrocketing economic and environmental costs

A.I. Is on the Rise, and So Is the Environmental Impact of the Data Centers That Drive It The demand for data centers is growing faster than our ability to mitigate their skyrocketing economic and environmental costs Amber X. Chen - AAAS Mass Media Fellow September 29, 2025 8:00 a.m. Amazon data centers sit next to houses in Loudoun County. Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post via Getty Images Key takeaways: A.I. and data centers As the demand for A.I. increases, companies are building more data centers to handle a growing workload. Many of these data centers are more than 30,000 square feet in size and use a lot of power and water. Gregory Pirio says he never would have moved to his townhome in Northern Virginia’s Loudoun County had he known that the area would soon be at the epicenter of a data center boom. Pirio—who works as the director of the Extractive Industry and Human Development Center at the Institute of World Affairs—moved to the county, just about an hour’s drive outside of Washington, D.C. 14 years ago. Back then, he recalls the place being filled with forested areas and farmland, with the occasional sounds of planes flying in from Dulles. “It was just really beautiful, and now it has this very industrial feel across it,” he says, adding that one can now drive for miles and just see data centers. Data centers are buildings that house the infrastructure needed to run computers, including servers, network equipment and data storage drives. Though they’ve been around since 1945 with the invention of the first general-purpose digital computer, in the past few years there has been an explosion in data center development to match the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. Over the past year, the environmental consequences of A.I.—specifically its most popular generative platforms like ChatGPT—have been under intense scrutiny. Last July, NPR reported that each ChatGPT search uses ten times more electricity than a Google search. In March 2024, Forbes reported that the water consumption associated with a single conversation with ChatGPT was comparable to that of a standard plastic water bottle. The emissions of data centers are only projected to go up, especially as companies look to employ A.I. on users’ behalf. For example, in May, Google announced A.I. overviews, a new user enhancement strategy that uses A.I. to create succinct summaries based on websites associated with a Google search query. Those queries and others like it on different platforms increase the need for additional data centers, which will require more and more energy. What are data centers? Data centers come in a variety of sizes. According to a 2024 report by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they can range from smaller centers—integrated into larger buildings for internal use by companies—that are on average less than 150 square feet, to hyperscale centers which are operated off-site by large tech companies to facilitate large-scale internet services. On average, hyperscale data centers are 30,000 square feet, although the largest of these data centers can reach sizes of well over one million square feet. As of 2024, more than half of the world’s hyperscale data centers were owned by tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Large data centers, particularly hyperscalers, are the data center of choice for companies looking to operate A.I. platforms, due to their high computing power. Clusters of large data centers are strategically chosen based on proximity to clients, electricity costs and available infrastructure. For example, data centers have been running through Northern Virginia since the advent of the internet in the mid-1990s because of the area’s cheap energy, a favorable regulatory system and proximity to Washington. Northern Virginia holds the highest concentration of data centers in the world at over 250 facilities. Across the state, data centers are now near schools, residential neighborhoods and retirement communities. According to Ann Bennett, data center issues chair at the Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter, new data centers that have been popping up across the area are of an entirely different scale and era. “These are bigger, taller,” Bennett says. “They’re pretty much only building hyperscalers.” How do data centers consume energy? To power the digital world—from day-to-day digital communications, websites and data storage—data centers require energy to power the hundreds of servers within them. With the advent of more hyperscale data centers being built to support A.I., data center energy use has increased. Benjamin Lee, a computer scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, breaks the high energy consumption of A.I. into two categories. First, there is the training that A.I. models undergo, in which tens of thousands of graphics processing units, or GPUs, within a data center must consume large datasets to train the parameters of more powerful A.I. models. Second, once an A.I. model is trained, it performs inference—or the process of responding to user requests based on its training. According to Lee, every word that a user provides to an A.I. model is processed to figure out not only what the word means but the extent to which that word relates to all other words that have been fed into the model. Thus, as more words increase processing time, more energy is consumed. “Fundamentally, A.I. uses energy, and it doesn’t care where that energy is coming from,” Lee says. Data centers mostly get their energy from whatever local grid is available to them. Globally, because most electric grids still rely heavily on fossil fuels, A.I. increases greenhouse gas emissions, says Shaolei Ren, a computer engineer at the University of California, Riverside. Virginia, for example, is part of PJM grid, for which the primary fuel source is natural gas. According to Noman Bashir, a computer engineer at MIT, because data centers are huge power consumers they often disrupt electric grid infrastructure, which can decrease the lifespan of household appliances, for example. In addition, Bashir notes that grid infrastructure must be updated when each new data center comes in—a cost that residents are subsidizing. In a 2025 report, the Dominion Energy found that that residential electric bills are projected to more than double by 2039, primarily due to data center growth. Already, the technology industry has seen a growth in emissions, mostly fueled by data centers. In July, Amazon reported that its emissions rose from 64.38 million metric tons in 2023 to 68.25 million metric tons in 2024—the company’s first emissions increase since 2021, primarily due to data centers and the delivery fleet it uses. Google, too, reported that its 2023 greenhouse gas emissions marked a 48 percent increase since 2019, mostly due to data center development and the production of goods and services for company operations. How else does A.I. impact the environment? Another dimension of A.I.’s environmental footprint is its water consumption. To put it simply, Ren explains that these powerful computers that run A.I. also get extremely hot. So, to keep them from overheating, data centers cool them with power air conditioning systems that are run by water. Water that is heated by computers is moved to massive cooling towers on top of a data center, and then is circulated back in. A data center’s direct water consumption is attributed to the water that evaporates during this process. This water loss is then left to the whims of the water cycle. “You don’t know how long [the water] will take to return or whether it will return to a specific geographic location,” Lee explains. “So where water is scarce, it’s a concern.” In 2023, data centers in the U.S. directly consumed about 66 billion liters of water. Bashir adds that the industry’s environmental impacts can also be seen farther up the supply chain. The GPUs that power A.I. data centers are made with rare earth elements, the extraction of which Bashir notes is resource intensive and can cause environmental degradation. How will data centers affect power consumption in the future? In order to meet A.I.’s hunger for power, companies are looking to expand fossil fuel energy projects: In July, developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline—a natural gas system that spans about 303 miles across Virginia—announced that they were considering a plan to boost the pipeline’s natural gas capacity by 25 percent. Earlier this year, the Atlanta-based electric utility Southern Company announced that it would backtrack on its previous announcement to retire a majority of its coal-fired power plants, citing growing demand from data centers. And when the grid can’t satisfy their needs, Lee says that data centers are now increasingly developing their own power sources—whether from renewable energy sources like nuclear or fossil fuel-based power plants. Pirio lives about 150 yards away from a data center that is not connected to the local grid. Instead, it’s powered by natural gas turbines with back-up diesel generators. He says that the noise pollution associated with the data center’s gas turbines is a huge problem for him and his neighbors, describing the din as a constant, humming sound. “Many of the neighbors, we got decimal reader apps, and it was off the charts. … They were like 90 decibels near our house,” he says. Pirio explains that he can no longer open the windows of his house on cool evenings because of the noise. He says another neighbor put mattresses against their window to block the noise. Pirio says he and his neighbors have no way of assessing what the emissions coming from the gas turbines are. “There’s just not structure for us to know, and they’re pretty much invisible,” he says. The Environmental Protection Energy notes that the presence of a fossil fuel-based power plant can significantly degrade air quality and emit toxic heavy metals like mercury into the atmosphere, harming local populations’ health. Vantage Data Centers, the company which runs the data center near Pirio, says it has installed Selective Catalytic Reductions (SCRs) which, according to its website, can reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel generators by up to 90 percent. Resident health and quality of life are not the only factors associated with data centers developing their own power sources. Even when data centers produce their own energy, Lee says the grid still provides them with significant backup infrastructure—which as Bashir explains, can still overwhelm the grid, causing it to become more unreliable for residents. How can A.I.’s data centers be made more sustainable? According to Lee, the renewable energy sector is simply not growing fast enough to meet the needs of A.I. While some analyses position data centers to grow at a rate of as much as 33 percent a year, the World Economic Forum says that global renewable energy capacity grew by 15.1 percent in 2024. Bashir and Lee both emphasize that much of the data center growth we are seeing is not being built on actual need, but speculation. According to Bashir, because tech companies are building data centers at such a rapid pace, these new centers will inevitably be powered by gas generators or other forms of fossil fuel, simply because infrastructure for widespread renewable energy does not yet exist. Beyond improving investments into renewable energy, Lee says that working toward algorithmic optimization is another way for A.I.’s data centers to lessen their carbon footprint. In a 2022 article, Lee—in collaboration with researchers at Meta—identified ways in which optimizing A.I. models can also improve sustainability. For example, researchers identified “data scaling”—in which a model is fed more data sets, resulting in a larger carbon footprint—as the current standard method to improve model accuracy. With a more efficient algorithm, energy costs could be significantly reduced. Lee emphasizes that those working toward creating more efficient A.I. must also focus on achieving a lower carbon footprint. Bashir adds that education remains an important tool to cutting back on A.I.’s emissions. “People can be educated on what are the A.I. tools available at their disposal,” he says. “How can they optimize their use? And [we need to tell] them of all the negative impacts of their use, so that they can decide if a particular use is worth this impact.” Get the latest Science stories in your inbox.

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The Vatican Knows an ‘Industrial Revolution’ When It Sees One

To update Catholic teaching for the age of AI, Pope Leo should revisit the 19th century.

The pope didn’t take long to explain why he picked the name Leo. Two days after his election, he cited his inspiration: the preceding Pope Leo, who led the Church while the West confronted the social and economic disruptions of the Industrial Revolution. The world now faces “another industrial revolution,” Leo XIV said last month, spurred not by mechanized manufacturing but by artificial intelligence. In particular, he noted the challenges that AI poses to “human dignity, justice, and labor,” three concerns that his 19th-century namesake prioritized as he responded to the technological transformations of his time.In 1891, Leo XIII published Rerum Novarum, a moral and intellectual framework that addressed the growing inequality, materialism, and exploitation ushered in by the Industrial Revolution. The current pope has signaled that AI’s arrival demands a similar intervention; if the earlier Leo’s tenure is any indication, it could be the most ambitious and enduring project of Leo XIV’s papacy. Rerum Novarum will be a guiding influence.Leo XIII insisted in Rerum Novarum that labor is both “personal” and “necessary” for each individual, and that societies should protect the dignity of their workers as they pursue economic growth. Idolizing capital widens inequality, hence the “misery and wretchedness” that many employers inflicted on much of the working class during the Industrial Revolution. The pope stated that socialism was no solution, but that employers must guarantee their workers reasonable hours, just wages, safe workplaces, and the right to unionize.[Randy Boyagoda: The pope’s most revealing choice so far]These statements by the Church gave crucial backing to workers’ movements and civic organizations fighting for labor protections. In Europe, Rerum Novarum consolidated Catholic support for workers and bolstered the political influence of labor unions, many of which adopted Christian principles to advance their cause. Leo XIII’s interventions played a significant role in the United States as well. The pope supported American worker movements such as the Knights of Labor, and inspired Catholic reformers including Monsignor John Ryan, whose advocacy for a universal living wage influenced architects of the New Deal. Leo XIII also commissioned the likes of Saint Frances Cabrini and Saint Katharine Drexel to expand their missionary work, ultimately seeding hospitals, schools, orphanages, and public-housing complexes that addressed injustices faced particularly by immigrants, Black Americans, and Native Americans.Rerum Novarum also had a profound influence on the Catholic Church itself. The document inaugurated what’s now known as modern Catholic social teaching, an expansive intellectual tradition that emphasizes the common good, social justice, human dignity, and concern for the poor.Now Leo XIV has an opportunity to update this tradition for the age of AI. Like his namesake, he could marshal the Church’s intellectual, cultural, and institutional resources, helping build a moral consensus about how to use a new technology that threatens to degrade humanity rather than serve it. Vice President J. D. Vance recently conceded that America is not equipped to provide this kind of leadership, but that the Catholic Church is.Leo has plenty of material to work with. Earlier this year, two administrative bodies within the Vatican produced an advisory document called Antiqua et Nova, which uses the Catholic intellectual tradition to argue that AI cannot engage with the world as a human can. For one thing, no technology has the capacity “to savor what is true, good, and beautiful,” the authors write. Lacking interiority and a conscience, AI cannot authentically grasp meaning, assume moral accountability, or form relationships. As a result, the document contends, developers and users must take responsibility for AI products, ensuring that they don’t exacerbate inequality, impose unsustainable environmental costs, or make decisions in war that could result in the indiscriminate loss of life.[Tyler Austin Harper: What happens when people don’t understand how AI works]Both of us have contributed to initiatives that seek to better understand AI in the context of Catholic social teaching. Mariele is a member of an AI research group within the Vatican that recently published a book, Encountering Artificial Intelligence, that considers the ethical impacts of AI in politics, education, the family, and other spheres of life. In health care, for example, AI can help improve access to certain kinds of assessment and treatment, but it can also perpetuate disparities through biases reflected in data, or disrupt the relationship between patients and health-care professionals. We are both part of a cohort at the University of Southern California investigating the ethical and social implications of transhumanism, especially as it intersects with AI. The group consists mostly of theologians and Catholic bioethicists, but we have found that many scholars working outside the Catholic tradition are eager to engage with the Church’s thinking on these issues. Encouraging such collaboration will be crucial for Leo.As was true of the technology of the Industrial Revolution, AI will become most dangerous when economies prioritize profit and technological development over human flourishing and the dignity of labor. Left unregulated, markets will continually choose efficiency at the expense of workers, risking widespread unemployment and the dehumanization of the kinds of work that manage to survive. If the social order does not put technology at the service of people, markets will put the latter at the service of the former.Although the Church may not have the same influence in the secular 21st century that it did in the 19th, there are signs of a possible Catholic resurgence—particularly among young people—that could help Leo reach a wider audience. Just as it did during the first Industrial Revolution, the Church has a chance to help safeguard work that is dignified, justly paid, and commensurate with human flourishing. The pope’s new name is a hopeful sign that this responsibility won’t go unmet.

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