GoGreenNation news

This seaside town will power thousands of homes with waves

News Feed

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

NEWPORT, Ore. — At a moment when large offshore wind projects are encountering public resistance, a nascent ocean industry is showing promise: wave energy.It’s coming to life in Newport, a rainy coastal town of nearly 10,500 people located a couple of hours south of Portland. Home to fishing operators and researchers, Newport attracts tourists and retirees with its famous aquarium, sprawling beaches and noisy sea lions. If you ask anyone at the lively bayfront about a wave energy project, they probably don’t know much about it.And yet right off the coast, a $100 million effort with funding from the Energy Department aims to convert the power of waves into energy, and help catch up to Europe in developing this new technology. The buoy-like contraptions, located several miles offshore, will deliver up to 20 megawatts of energy — enough to power thousands of homes and businesses.As federal officials look to shift America’s electricity grid away from fossil fuels, they are seeking alternatives to solar and wind, which can only deliver energy when the sun shines or the wind blows. Waves — constant and full of untapped energy — have emerged as a promising option. And because wave energy projects are relatively unobtrusive, they’re far less controversial than offshore wind, which has generated fierce opposition on both U.S. coasts. In September, the Biden administration announced up to $112.5 million would go toward the development of wave energy converters, the largest federal investment in marine energy.There’s enough energy in the waves off America’s coasts to power one third of all the nation’s homes, said Matthew Grosso, the Energy Department’s director of the water power technologies office.Spanning 2.65 square miles and located seven miles out from shore, the PacWave test site is expected to be a “game changer for marine energy,” he said in an interview.Under the water, subsea connectors are waiting to be plugged in like extension cords to wave energy converters developed by teams around the world. With deep-sea offshore testing, companies will see how much power these energy converters can produce, whether they can hold up in rough ocean conditions, what environmental impacts they might have and how the devices will interact with each other.PacWave, a project of Oregon State University (OSU), represents a necessary step for commercializing wave energy, experts said.“The research that’s been done in the past 15 years is reaching the point of what we can do just in labs or in theory,” Grosso said. “We’ve got to start testing some of this stuff out and see what works and what doesn’t.”How wave energy worksUnlike other forms of renewable energy, engineers have not yet settled on a single model of wave energy converters. While wind turbines have converged into the three-blade turbine shape, there’s many types of wave energy converters in development, turning the motion of the wave into electrical energy in different ways.You can feel the energy in the waves, when it laps at the shore or when it rocks your boat. Created by wind over the sea, it’s one part of the ecosystem of renewable energy that’s available to us. But since waves don’t move in a linear motion, they’re harder to capture energy from than the flow of wind over a turbine, for example.One wave energy converter may not work in all environments, either — models can vary based on the depth of water and conditions the converter will operate in. Some use rotating cylinders; some are buoys that move up and down with the waves; others look like snakes with joints that move when waves roll through.But all of these devices use the oscillating or orbital motion of a wave to generate an electrical current, explained PacWave Chief Scientist Burke Hales, in the same way that turbines use rotations to generate a current.With four different berths, the site can host devices by multiple developers at once. The cables carrying the electricity are buried under the seafloor, running 12 miles diagonal to the shoreline to avoid a rocky reef. On land, an operating site measures the energy output and sends the energy to the Central Lincoln power utility.Because there’s no wave energy converters plugged in yet, there’s still a clear view of the horizon from Newport’s beaches. But even the larger devices are unlikely to be visible to the naked eye once they’re there in the new year.Coexisting with fisheriesThe PacWave site sits where crabbers set out their pots to catch Dungeness crab, one of the West Coast’s most important seafood species. And yet, unlike an offshore wind project a hundred miles down the coast that sparked strong opposition, most residents are either unaware of the wave energy project or support it. The fact that the project is limited, and unlikely to spur commercial activity offshore that could damage the town’s fishing economy, has helped its cause.When deciding where to locate the project, Newport won out for its proximity to OSU’s main campus in Corvallis and the local fishing fleet’s openness to the idea. The town also hosts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Operations Center for the Pacific, which has its own research fleet.PacWave also brought the promise of jobs, said Belinda Batten, who conducted outreach for PacWave when she directed the Energy Department’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center. Many here remember how NOAA’s move to Newport in 2011 created employment opportunities.Perhaps most importantly, OSU already had a strong relationship with the community given the marine center in town, according to Charlie Plybon, who lives in Newport and is the Oregon senior policy manager for the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.It took years of outreach and many town hall meetings for Batten, who now serves as a senior adviser to the OSU provost, and Kaety Jacobson, Lincoln County commissioner and a fisherman’s daughter, to cement their trust with the community. When they assembled some fleet members to decide the site, it took all of 10 minutes for the crabbers to draw a plot on a map of the ocean for a location that could work for everyone involved.That area was important fishing grounds for the fleet, said crabber Bob Eder. In his button-down shirt and sneakers, Eder knows he doesn’t look like a stereotypical fisherman, but he’s one of the most well-respected crabbers in the fleet and still goes out in the waters every season at the age of 73. The PacWave site could represent a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the fleet every crabbing season, he said. On the navigation system in his boat, he pointed to a map that showed he had previously crabbed in the area that was now off limits.But the operators agreed to give it up for the sake of the experiment.Eder, a representative of the fishing community during the process, said that the agreement with Oregon State was a show of goodwill from the fishing community, whose members care about the environment and want to preserve their livelihood.“[Climate change] definitely affects those of us whose work is directly involved with the environment,” he said. “And so every fishery is at an environmental risk.”Where wave energy could thriveIn states like Oregon, where an abundance of renewable energy has lowered the price of electricity to around 3½ cents per kilowatt hour, wave energy isn’t a competitive option. The first large-scale commercial wave energy project, by contrast, is expected to produce electricity costing 12 to 47 cents per kilowatt hour.But in small, remote communities that depend on more expensive diesel fuel, wave power could ease energy woes.“There’s remote communities in Alaska where everyone is running on diesel generators, they’re not on the grid, they have no electrical system,” said PacWave Director Dan Hellin.The wave industry first has to overcome several challenges. The consensus in the industry is that wave energy’s development is 20 years behind that of wind. But Tim Ramsey, the Energy Department’s marine energy program manager, pointed out that wind began to take off at that point, in the early 2000s.In addition, putting something into offshore waters usually requires extensive federal permitting, which can take years. That’s why this test site is important for developers — PacWave’s operation offers a site that has already earned the necessary approvals.In order for wave energy to be economically viable, developers need to lower its cost. Technological advancements can help, and just as solar and wind energy have received government subsidies, federal support could help get wave energy off the ground.Members of the Newport fishing fleet — even those who aren’t fans of the project — have hope that this renewable energy offers possibilities.Crabber Bob Kemp, 75, said he isn’t thrilled that he won’t be able to fish for crab in that part of the ocean anymore, but he’s counting on the researchers to make good use of the space they’ve taken.“I want to make sure the project has some kind of pressure on it to keep going and not just [move on] like a contractor moves on to a new house,” Kemp said. “I want them to stay on that.”

A test site off the Oregon coast could be key to unlocking wave power in the United States. Surprisingly, residents aren’t opposed.

NEWPORT, Ore. — At a moment when large offshore wind projects are encountering public resistance, a nascent ocean industry is showing promise: wave energy.

It’s coming to life in Newport, a rainy coastal town of nearly 10,500 people located a couple of hours south of Portland. Home to fishing operators and researchers, Newport attracts tourists and retirees with its famous aquarium, sprawling beaches and noisy sea lions. If you ask anyone at the lively bayfront about a wave energy project, they probably don’t know much about it.

And yet right off the coast, a $100 million effort with funding from the Energy Department aims to convert the power of waves into energy, and help catch up to Europe in developing this new technology. The buoy-like contraptions, located several miles offshore, will deliver up to 20 megawatts of energy — enough to power thousands of homes and businesses.

As federal officials look to shift America’s electricity grid away from fossil fuels, they are seeking alternatives to solar and wind, which can only deliver energy when the sun shines or the wind blows. Waves — constant and full of untapped energy — have emerged as a promising option. And because wave energy projects are relatively unobtrusive, they’re far less controversial than offshore wind, which has generated fierce opposition on both U.S. coasts. In September, the Biden administration announced up to $112.5 million would go toward the development of wave energy converters, the largest federal investment in marine energy.

There’s enough energy in the waves off America’s coasts to power one third of all the nation’s homes, said Matthew Grosso, the Energy Department’s director of the water power technologies office.

Spanning 2.65 square miles and located seven miles out from shore, the PacWave test site is expected to be a “game changer for marine energy,” he said in an interview.

Under the water, subsea connectors are waiting to be plugged in like extension cords to wave energy converters developed by teams around the world. With deep-sea offshore testing, companies will see how much power these energy converters can produce, whether they can hold up in rough ocean conditions, what environmental impacts they might have and how the devices will interact with each other.

PacWave, a project of Oregon State University (OSU), represents a necessary step for commercializing wave energy, experts said.

“The research that’s been done in the past 15 years is reaching the point of what we can do just in labs or in theory,” Grosso said. “We’ve got to start testing some of this stuff out and see what works and what doesn’t.”

How wave energy works

Unlike other forms of renewable energy, engineers have not yet settled on a single model of wave energy converters. While wind turbines have converged into the three-blade turbine shape, there’s many types of wave energy converters in development, turning the motion of the wave into electrical energy in different ways.

You can feel the energy in the waves, when it laps at the shore or when it rocks your boat. Created by wind over the sea, it’s one part of the ecosystem of renewable energy that’s available to us. But since waves don’t move in a linear motion, they’re harder to capture energy from than the flow of wind over a turbine, for example.

One wave energy converter may not work in all environments, either — models can vary based on the depth of water and conditions the converter will operate in. Some use rotating cylinders; some are buoys that move up and down with the waves; others look like snakes with joints that move when waves roll through.

But all of these devices use the oscillating or orbital motion of a wave to generate an electrical current, explained PacWave Chief Scientist Burke Hales, in the same way that turbines use rotations to generate a current.

With four different berths, the site can host devices by multiple developers at once. The cables carrying the electricity are buried under the seafloor, running 12 miles diagonal to the shoreline to avoid a rocky reef. On land, an operating site measures the energy output and sends the energy to the Central Lincoln power utility.

Because there’s no wave energy converters plugged in yet, there’s still a clear view of the horizon from Newport’s beaches. But even the larger devices are unlikely to be visible to the naked eye once they’re there in the new year.

Coexisting with fisheries

The PacWave site sits where crabbers set out their pots to catch Dungeness crab, one of the West Coast’s most important seafood species. And yet, unlike an offshore wind project a hundred miles down the coast that sparked strong opposition, most residents are either unaware of the wave energy project or support it. The fact that the project is limited, and unlikely to spur commercial activity offshore that could damage the town’s fishing economy, has helped its cause.

When deciding where to locate the project, Newport won out for its proximity to OSU’s main campus in Corvallis and the local fishing fleet’s openness to the idea. The town also hosts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Operations Center for the Pacific, which has its own research fleet.

PacWave also brought the promise of jobs, said Belinda Batten, who conducted outreach for PacWave when she directed the Energy Department’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center. Many here remember how NOAA’s move to Newport in 2011 created employment opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, OSU already had a strong relationship with the community given the marine center in town, according to Charlie Plybon, who lives in Newport and is the Oregon senior policy manager for the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.

It took years of outreach and many town hall meetings for Batten, who now serves as a senior adviser to the OSU provost, and Kaety Jacobson, Lincoln County commissioner and a fisherman’s daughter, to cement their trust with the community. When they assembled some fleet members to decide the site, it took all of 10 minutes for the crabbers to draw a plot on a map of the ocean for a location that could work for everyone involved.

That area was important fishing grounds for the fleet, said crabber Bob Eder. In his button-down shirt and sneakers, Eder knows he doesn’t look like a stereotypical fisherman, but he’s one of the most well-respected crabbers in the fleet and still goes out in the waters every season at the age of 73. The PacWave site could represent a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the fleet every crabbing season, he said. On the navigation system in his boat, he pointed to a map that showed he had previously crabbed in the area that was now off limits.

But the operators agreed to give it up for the sake of the experiment.

Eder, a representative of the fishing community during the process, said that the agreement with Oregon State was a show of goodwill from the fishing community, whose members care about the environment and want to preserve their livelihood.

“[Climate change] definitely affects those of us whose work is directly involved with the environment,” he said. “And so every fishery is at an environmental risk.”

Where wave energy could thrive

In states like Oregon, where an abundance of renewable energy has lowered the price of electricity to around 3½ cents per kilowatt hour, wave energy isn’t a competitive option. The first large-scale commercial wave energy project, by contrast, is expected to produce electricity costing 12 to 47 cents per kilowatt hour.

But in small, remote communities that depend on more expensive diesel fuel, wave power could ease energy woes.

“There’s remote communities in Alaska where everyone is running on diesel generators, they’re not on the grid, they have no electrical system,” said PacWave Director Dan Hellin.

The wave industry first has to overcome several challenges. The consensus in the industry is that wave energy’s development is 20 years behind that of wind. But Tim Ramsey, the Energy Department’s marine energy program manager, pointed out that wind began to take off at that point, in the early 2000s.

In addition, putting something into offshore waters usually requires extensive federal permitting, which can take years. That’s why this test site is important for developers — PacWave’s operation offers a site that has already earned the necessary approvals.

In order for wave energy to be economically viable, developers need to lower its cost. Technological advancements can help, and just as solar and wind energy have received government subsidies, federal support could help get wave energy off the ground.

Members of the Newport fishing fleet — even those who aren’t fans of the project — have hope that this renewable energy offers possibilities.

Crabber Bob Kemp, 75, said he isn’t thrilled that he won’t be able to fish for crab in that part of the ocean anymore, but he’s counting on the researchers to make good use of the space they’ve taken.

“I want to make sure the project has some kind of pressure on it to keep going and not just [move on] like a contractor moves on to a new house,” Kemp said. “I want them to stay on that.”

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

Related News

L.A. County sues oil companies over unplugged oil wells in Inglewood

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court charges four oil companies with failing to properly clean up at least 227 idle or exhausted wells in the oil field near Baldwin Hills.

Los Angeles County is suing four oil and gas companies for allegedly failing to plug idle oil wells in the large Inglewood Oil Field near Baldwin Hills.The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court charges Sentinel Peak Resources California, Freeport-McMoran Oil & Gas, Plains Resources and Chevron U.S.A. with failing to properly clean up at least 227 idle and exhausted wells in the oil field. The wells “continue to leak toxic pollutants into the air, land, and water and present unacceptable dangers to human health, safety, and the environment,” the complaint says.The lawsuit aims to force the operators to address dangers posed by the unplugged wells. More than a million people live within five miles of the Inglewood oil field. “We are making it clear to these oil companies that Los Angeles County is done waiting and that we remain unwavering in our commitment to protect residents from the harmful impacts of oil drilling,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose district includes the oil field, in a statement. “Plugging idle oil and gas wells — so they no longer emit toxins into communities that have been on the frontlines of environmental injustice for generations — is not only the right thing to do, it’s the law.”Sentinel is the oil field’s current operator, while Freeport-McMoran Oil & Gas, Plains Resources and Chevron U.S.A. were past operators. Energy companies often temporarily stop pumping from a well and leave it idle waiting for market conditions to improve. In a statement, a representative for Sentinel Peak said the company is aware of the lawsuit and that the “claims are entirely without merit.”“This suit appears to be an attempt to generate sensationalized publicity rather than adjudicate a legitimate legal matter,” general counsel Erin Gleaton said in an email. “We have full confidence in our position, supported by the facts and our record of regulatory compliance.”Chevron said it does not comment on pending legal matters. The others did not immediately respond to a request for comment.State regulations define “idle wells” as wells that have not produced oil or natural gas for 24 consecutive months, and “exhausted wells” as those that yield an average daily production of two barrels of oil or less. California is home to thousands of such wells, according to the California Department of Conservation. Idle and exhausted wells can continue to emit hazardous air pollutants such as benzene, as well as a methane, a planet-warming greenhouse gas. Unplugged wells can also leak oil, benzene, chloride, heavy metals and arsenic into groundwater. Plugging idle and exhausted wells includes removing surface valves and piping, pumping large amount of cement down the hole and reclaiming the surrounding ground. The process can be expensive, averaging an estimated $923,200 per well in Los Angeles County, according to the California Geologic Energy Management Division, which notes that the costs could fall to taxpayers if the defendants do not take action. This 2023 estimate from CalGEM is about three times higher than other parts of the state due to the complexity of sealing wells and remediating the surface in densely populated urban areas. The suit seeks a court order requiring the wells to be properly plugged, as well as abatement for the harms caused by their pollution. It seeks civil penalties of up to $2,500 per day for each well that is in violation of the law. Residents living near oil fields have long reported adverse health impacts such as respiratory, reproductive and cardiovascular issues. In Los Angeles, many of these risks disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color.“The goal of this lawsuit is to force these oil companies to clean up their mess and stop business practices that disproportionately impact people of color living near these oil wells,” County Counsel Dawyn Harrison said in a statement. “My office is determined to achieve environmental justice for communities impacted by these oil wells and to prevent taxpayers from being stuck with a huge cleanup bill.”The lawsuit is part of L.A. County’s larger effort to phase out oil drilling, including a high-profile ordinance that sought to ban new oils wells and even require existing ones to stop production within 20 years. Oil companies successfully challenged it and it was blocked in 2024. Rita Kampalath, the county’s chief sustainability officer, said the county remains “dedicated to moving toward a fossil-fuel free L.A. County.”“This lawsuit demonstrates the County’s commitment to realizing our sustainability goals by addressing the impacts of the fossil fuel industry on frontline communities and the environment,” Kampalath said.

Business

Conservation

Energy

California’s last nuclear power plant faces renewed scrutiny as it gains latest permit

A state regulator is requiring California’s last nuclear power plant to conserve 4,000 acres of surrounding land to keep operating until 2030.

In summary A state regulator is requiring California’s last nuclear power plant to conserve 4,000 acres of surrounding land to keep operating until 2030. California’s last nuclear power plant overcame a regulatory hurdle on Thursday when the California Coastal Commission voted to approve keeping the plant open for at least five years. It was one of the final obstacles the controversial Diablo Canyon Power Plant had to clear to continue operating amid renewed opposition. The decision was conditioned on a plan that would require Pacific Gas & Electric, which owns the plant, to conserve about 4,000 acres of land on its property. That would prevent it from ever being developed for commercial or residential use. The plant, located along the San Luis Obispo shoreline, now awaits federal approval for a 20-year relicensing permit. “I don’t think, unfortunately, that anything will be happening to Diablo Canyon soon,” due to the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence, Commissioner Jaime Lee said before voting to approve the permit. Nine of the 12 voting members approved the plan. The deliberations reignited decades-old concerns about the dangers of nuclear power and its place in the state’s portfolio of renewable energy sources. Diablo Canyon is the state’s single-largest energy source, providing nearly 10% of all California electricity. Defeated in their earlier attempts to shut the plant, critics of Diablo Canyon used months of Coastal Commission hearings as one of their last opportunities to vocalize their disdain for the facility. Some Democratic lawmakers supported the plant but pushed for PG&E to find more ways to protect the environment. Sen. John Laird, Democrat of San Luis Obispo County and former secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, said on Thursday he approved of the new plan but pushed the commission to require the utility to conserve even more of its total 12,000 surrounding acres. “If what comes out of this is the path for preservation for 8,000 acres of land, that is a remarkable victory,” Laird said. Democratic Assemblymember Dawn Addis, whose district encompasses the plant, had also urged the commission in a letter to approve a permit “once it contains strong mitigation measures that reflect the values and needs of the surrounding tribal and local communities who depend on our coastal regions for environmental health, biodiversity and economic vitality.” A long history of controversy Founded in 1985, the plant’s striking concrete domes sit along the Pacific coast 200 miles north of Los Angeles. The facility draws in 2 million gallons of water from the ocean every day to cool its systems And it has remained shrouded in controversy since its construction 40 years ago. Environmentalists point to the damage it causes to marine life, killing what the Coastal Commission estimates are 2 billion larval fish a year. The commissioners on Thursday were not deciding whether to allow the plant to stay open but were weighing how best to lessen the environmental impacts of its operation. A 2022 state law forced the plant to stay open for five more years past its planned 2025 closure date, which could have led to significant political blowback against the Coastal Commission if it had rejected the permit. Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story. John Laird Democrat, State Senate, District 17 (Santa Cruz) Dawn Addis Democrat, State Assembly, District 30 (San Luis Obispo) Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed a 2016 agreement made between environmental groups and worker unions to close the plant after the state faced a series of climate disasters that spurred energy blackouts. Popular sentiment toward nuclear energy has also continued to grow more supportive as states across the country consider revitalizing dormant and aging nuclear plants to fulfill ever-increasing energy demand needs. The 2022 law authorized a $1.4 billion loan to be paid back with federal loans or profits. Groups such as the Environmental Defense Center and Mothers for Peace opposed the permit outright, citing concerns about radioactive waste, which can persist for centuries, and its cost to taxpayers. “We maintain that any extension of Diablo is unnecessary,” and that its continued operations could slow the development of solar and wind energy, Jeremy Frankel, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Center told the commission Thursday. The California Public Utilities Commission last year approved $723 million in ratepayer funds toward Diablo Canyon’s operating costs this year. It was the first time rate hikes were spread to ratepayers of other utilities such as Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric and was authorized by lawmakers because the plant provides energy to the entire state. How the plant will be funded has also garnered scrutiny in the years since Newsom worked to keep it open. Last year, the Legislature nearly canceled a $400 million loan to help finance it. As much as $588 million is unlikely to come back due to insufficient federal funding and projected profits, CalMatters has reported. Proponents of the plant pointed to its reliability, carbon-free pollution and the thousands of jobs it has created. Business advocacy groups emphasized their support for the plant as boosting the economy. “It is an economic lifeline that helps keep our communities strong and competitive,” Dora Westerlund, president of the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation, said at a November meeting.

Business

Climate

Energy

Shade Equity: To Understand the Problem — and the Solutions — Look to Tucson

Heat deaths here have soared 650% in the past decade. Addressing inequality will save lives. The post Shade Equity: To Understand the Problem — and the Solutions — Look to Tucson appeared first on The Revelator.

Residents of Tucson all know the relief of stepping into the shade on a hot desert afternoon. In Tucson, where summer temperatures often soar above 110 degrees, shade can feel like a lifeline. Yet in too many parts of our city, especially on the Southside, shade is scarce. Concrete and gravel dominate yards, streets, and gathering places, while tree canopy coverage remains limited. For residents who rely on walking and public transit, the absence of shade turns a simple errand into a serious health risk. In 2023 alone there were 990 heat-related deaths in the state of Arizona. Compared to a decade ago, this is a 650% increase in the number of preventable fatalities attributable to extreme heat exposure. This risk is compounded by the heat records being broken in the spring and fall, exacerbating the risk of heat exposure. We’re a group of graduate students in the field of public health at the University of Arizona who have learned how infrastructure directly affects health outcomes. Living, working, and studying in Tucson has made us aware of how urban planning can either protect or endanger communities. Affluent neighborhoods often enjoy tree-lined streets and shaded bus stops, while historically marginalized communities endure relentless sun exposure. This is not just an inconvenience; it’s an environmental justice problem that compounds existing health disparities. Tucson’s Million Trees initiative has made significant strides thanks to the local leadership and a $5 million federal grant. However, recent actions by the Trump administration have halted this progress and more initiatives in the city. Cuts to diversity and equity programs have led to the cancellation of a $75 million urban forestry grant nationwide, potentially limiting future support for cities like Tucson. On top of that, efforts to boost domestic timber production and recent layoffs in the U.S. Forest Service risk undermining tree maintenance and climate resilience. As Tucson faces increasingly severe summer heat, communities must look beyond temporary relief measures to sustainable solutions. Water stations and cooling centers have become first-line defenses, yet they operate under limited hours, require maintenance, and often go underutilized due to distance or lack of public awareness. In contrast, expanding shade through canopy trees and permanent shade structures provides passive, continuously available cooling with minimal energy demand. Funding for these projects is already supported by the city’s Green Infrastructure Fee on monthly water bills, making the investment fiscally feasible. Trees not only reduce ambient temperatures but also filter air pollutants, mitigate stormwater runoff, and enhance community well-being. Although the initial cost may seem significant, the long-term public health gains, reduced energy use, and environmental resilience far outweigh the expense. For Tucson’s future, shade must be recognized as critical infrastructure. Increased community involvement is crucial for the success of shade equity initiatives. We must empower residents to shape their environment to move beyond top-down approaches. This can be achieved through several avenues. First we must educate residents about shade equity through accessible public awareness campaigns that highlight the tangible benefits of shade and the very real risks of heat exposure. Residents must also be directly involved in the shade infrastructure projects’ planning and design. This can be accomplished through inclusive workshops, user-friendly surveys, and the establishment of representative community advisory boards. We should create robust volunteer programs that incentivize residents to participate in tree planting, shade structure maintenance, and sustained community outreach. Genuine partnerships between government agencies, nonprofit organizations, local businesses, schools, and local artists are key to leveraging diverse resources and expertise. Perhaps most importantly, we must equip and encourage residents to become active advocates for shade equity policies and increased funding at the local and state levels by organizing community meetings and town halls and supporting the development and implementation of comprehensive shade master plans that prioritize the equitable distribution of shade resources as a matter of fundamental justice. Cities across Arizona — like Phoenix, Yuma, and Nogales — face similar patterns of shade inequity, and this issue extends nationwide. From Los Angeles to Atlanta, low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and unhoused folks consistently have fewer trees and less shade infrastructure. Internationally, cities in the Global South are also grappling with rising temperatures but lack adequate cooling solutions. This puts the unhoused populations at risk of heat-related illness and increased risk of mortality, especially in cities like Tucson. As urban areas everywhere adapt to the climate crisis, equitable shade must be part of the conversation around sustainable, healthy city design. And as climate change intensifies and heat waves grow more deadly, access to shade must be recognized as a basic public health need. Even as the Trump administration threatens to cut funding from climate initiatives, Tucson’s commitment remains firm. Shade must be treated as essential infrastructure, not a luxury. With every tree planted creating shaded space, we take a hopeful step toward a more livable Tucson — and other overheated cities across the planet. Previously in The Revelator: As Heat Deaths Rise, Planting Trees Is Part of the Solution The post Shade Equity: To Understand the Problem — and the Solutions — Look to Tucson appeared first on The Revelator.

Business

Climate

Crisis

OpenAI’s Secrets are Revealed in Empire of AI

On our 2025 Best Nonfiction of the Year list, Karen Hao’s investigation of artificial intelligence reveals how the AI future is still in our hands

Technology reporter Karen Hao started reporting on artificial intelligence in 2018, before ChatGPT was introduced, and is one of the few journalists to gain access to the inner world of the chatbot’s creator, OpenAI. In her book Empire of AI, Hao outlines the rise of the controversial company.In her research, Hao spoke to OpenAI leaders, scientists and entry-level workers around the globe who are shaping the development of AI. She explores its potential for scientific discovery and its impacts on the environment, as well as the divisive quest to create a machine that can rival human smarts through artificial general intelligence (AGI).Scientific American spoke with Hao about her deep reporting on AI, Sam Altman’s potential place in AI’s future and the ways the technology might continue to change the world.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]How realistic is the goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI)?There is no scientific consensus around what intelligence is, so AI and AGI are inherently unmoored concepts. This is helpful for deflating the hype of Silicon Valley when they say AGI is around the corner, and it’s also helpful in recognizing that the lack of predetermination around what AI is and what it should do leaves plenty of room for everyone.You argue that we should be thinking about AI in terms of empires and colonialism. Can you explain why?I call companies like OpenAI empires both because of the sheer magnitude at which they are operating and the controlling influence they’ve developed—also the tactics for how they’ve accumulated an enormous amount of economic and political power. They amass that power through the dispossession of the majority of the rest of the world.There’s also this huge ideological component to the current AI industry. This quest for an artificial general intelligence is a faith-based idea. It's not a scientific idea. It is this quasi-religious notion that if we continue down a particular path of AI development, somehow a kind of AI god is going to emerge that will solve all of humanity's problems. Colonialism is the fusion of capitalism and ideology, so there’s just a multitude of parallels between the empires of old and the empires of AI.There’s also a parallel in how they both cause environmental destruction. Which environmental impacts of AI are most concerning?There are just so many intersecting crises that the AI industry’s path of development is exacerbating. One, of course, is the energy crisis. Sam Altman announced he wants to see 250 gigawatts of data-center capacity laid by 2033 just for his company. New York City [uses] on average 5.5 gigawatts [per day]. Altman has estimated that this would cost around $10 trillion —where is he going to get that money? Who knows.But if that were to come to pass, the primary energy sources would be fossil fuels. Business Insider had an investigation earlier this year that found that utilities are “torpedo[ing]” their renewable-energy goals in order to service the data-center demand. So we are seeing natural gas plants and coal plants having their lives extended. That’s not just pumping emissions into the atmosphere; it’s also pumping air pollution into communities.So the question is: How long are we going to deal with the actual harms and hold out for the speculative possibility that maybe, at the end of the road, it’s all going to be fine? There was a survey earlier this year that found that [roughly] 75 percent of long-standing AI researchers who are not in the pocket of industry do not think we are on the path to an artificial general intelligence. We should not be using a tiny possibility on the far-off horizon that is not even scientifically backed to justify an extraordinary and irreversible set of damages that are occurring right now.Do you think Sam Altman has lied about OpenAI’s abilities, or has he just fallen for his own marketing?It’s a great question. The thing that’s complex about OpenAI, that surprised me the most when I was reporting, is that there are quasi-religious movements that have developed around ideas like “AGI could solve all of humanity’s problems” or “AGI could kill everyone.” It is really hard to figure out whether Altman himself is a believer or whether he has just found it to be politically savvy to leverage these beliefs.You did a lot of reporting on the workers helping to make this AI revolution happen. What did you find?I traveled to Kenya to meet with workers that OpenAI had contracted, as well as workers being contracted by the rest of the AI industry. What OpenAI wanted them to do was to help build a content moderation filter for the company’s GPT models. At the time they were trying to expand their commercialization efforts, and they realized that if you put text-generation models that can generate anything into the hands of millions of people, you’re going to come up with a problem because it could end up spewing racist, toxic hate speech at users, and it would become a huge PR crisis.For the workers, that meant they had to wade through some of the worst content on the Internet, as well as content where OpenAI was prompting its own AI models to imagine the worst content on the Internet to provide a more diverse and comprehensive set of examples to these workers. These workers suffered the same kinds of psychological traumas that content moderators of the social media era suffered.I also spoke with the workers that were on a different part of the human labor supply chain in reinforcement learning from human feedback. This is a thing that many companies have adopted where tens of thousands of workers have to teach the model what is a good answer when a user chats with the chatbot.One woman I spoke to, Winnie, worked for this platform called Remotasks, which is the backend for Scale AI, one of the primary contractors of reinforcement learning from human feedback. The content that she was working with was not necessarily traumatic in and of itself, but the conditions under which she was working were deeply exploitative: she never knew who she was working for, and she also never knew when the tasks would arrive. When I spoke to her, she had already been waiting months for a task to arrive, and when those tasks arrived, she would work for 22 hours straight in a day to just try and earn as much money as possible to ultimately feed her kids.This is the lifeblood of the AI industry, and yet these workers see absolutely none of the economic value that they’re generating for these companies.Some people worry AI could surpass human intelligence and take over the world. Is this a risk you fear?I don’t believe that AI will ultimately develop some kind of agency of its own, and I don’t think that it’s worth engaging in a project that is attempting to develop agentic systems that take agency away from people.What I see as a much more hopeful vision of an AI future is returning back to developing AI models and AI systems that support, rather than supplant, humans. And one of the things that I’m really bullish about is specialized AI models for solving particular challenges that we need to overcome as a society.One of the examples that I often give is of DeepMind’s AlphaFold, which is also a specialized deep-learning tool that was trained on a relatively modest number of computer chips to accurately predict the protein-folding structures from a sequence of amino acids. [Its developers] won the Nobel Prize [in] Chemistry last year. These are the types of AI systems that I think we should be putting our energy, time and talent into building.Are there other books on this subject you read while writing this book or have enjoyed recently that you can recommend to me?I’d recommend Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark, which I read after my book published. It may not seem directly related, but it very much is. Solnit makes the case for human agency—she urges people to remember that we co-create the future through our individual and collective action. That is also the greatest message I want people to take away from my book. Empires of AI are not inevitable—and the alternative path forward is in our hands.

Business

Crisis

Energy

Costa Rica’s Nayara Resorts Plans Eco-Friendly Beach Hotel in Manuel Antonio

Nayara Resorts, known for its high-end hotels and focus on green practices, has revealed plans for a new property in Manuel Antonio. The beach resort aims to open in mid- to late 2027 and will create about 300 direct jobs. For those familiar with the area, the site sits where the Barba Roja restaurant once stood. Nayara bought the land and has woven environmental standards into every step of design and planning. Blake May, the project director, noted that the company holds all required permits and has worked with authorities to meet rules on protected zones and coastal setbacks. Construction will blend with the surroundings, keeping trees, palms, and bamboo in the layout. Rooms will use natural airflow to cut down on air conditioning. Bars will have plant-covered roofs to lower emissions and clean the air. The resort will also run its own system to turn wastewater into reusable water for gardens. Before any building starts, Nayara hired a soil expert to protect the ground during demolition. Trees on the property get special attention too. The team is studying species to decide which stay in place and which move elsewhere for safety. This fits Nayara’s track record, like at their Tented Camp in La Fortuna, where they turned old pasture into forest by planting over 40,000 native trees and plants. Beyond the environment, Nayara commits to local people. They plan to share updates on progress, hire from the area for building and running the hotel, and buy from nearby businesses. Demolition of the old restaurant is in progress, with full construction set to begin early next year. This move grows Nayara’s footprint in Costa Rica, where they already run three spots in La Fortuna: Gardens, Springs, and Tented Camp. The new hotel marks their first push into the Pacific coast, drawing on their model of luxury tied to nature. Locals in the area, see promise in the jobs and tourism boost, as Manuel Antonio draws visitors for its parks and beaches. Nayara’s approach could set an example for other developments in the area. The post Costa Rica’s Nayara Resorts Plans Eco-Friendly Beach Hotel in Manuel Antonio appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Business

Forests

Nature

Suggested Viewing

Small Footprints: Crafting an Eco-Lodge in Wild Alaska

In 2008, a sustainable development project began in the middle of the Kenai Fjords of Alaska, 3 hours by boat from the nearest port of civilization. Told from the points of view of crew members, project coordinators and the Native Alaskan corporation that owns the land itself, the film is both a celebration of and a blueprint for sustainable construction, as well as an exciting battle against time and the elements deep within wild Alaska.

Sustainable

Business

Documentary

The Wisdom To Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism & Community

This film reveals how diverse environmental problems, from climate change to species extinction to ruined ecosystems, are all ultimately rooted in the “growth at all costs” attitude that pervades modern industrial society. Through beautiful and disturbing images and interviews with ecological scholars, spiritual leaders and activists, The Wisdom to Survive argues that the survival of humanity and most living beings on the planet will not come from technology, but from a profound raising of consciousness and deep spiritual transformation of humans who finally realize that we must live differently on planet earth.

Climate

Business

Extinction

Modern Nature

By 2050, 10 billion people may inhabit Earth. Do we need GMOs to Feed the World? Is organic production the answer? Modern Nature takes the viewer on a worldwide odyssey to find answers. Includes perspectives from philosopher Noam Chomsky, physicist Vandana Shiva and street farmer Ron Finley.

Food

Agriculture

Business

The Custodians of the Andean Gold

In the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes, more than 3 800 meters above sea level, live alpaca and vicunia breeders. Quechua and Aymara families protect their animals live off of the sale of the animals’ fiber. Gold mining is another activity that predates the Conquest and is widespread among families living in the border area between Peru and Bolivia. The difficult compatibility on the same territory of these two production activities increases the need for environmental protection and workers' rights. It has become indispensable to support producers so that this activity does not disappear with the migration of native peoples, abandoning traditions and animals.

Animals

Indigenous

Business

Green Waste

What if every person could actually make an impact on the world? “Green Waste” takes an in-depth look at the process of recycling and waste management in the community of Flagstaff. From recycling plastic bags, to re-using glass bottles, from recycling hazardous waste to the efforts of local businesses, the film shows how every contribution, no matter how small, can collectively make the difference for a better tomorrow. Filmed and Produced under the Emerging Filmmakers Program for youth filmmakers.

Waste

Business

Solutions

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

GoGreenNation news

This seaside town will power thousands of homes with waves

How wave energy works

Coexisting with fisheries

Where wave energy could thrive

Related News

L.A. County sues oil companies over unplugged oil wells in Inglewood

California’s last nuclear power plant faces renewed scrutiny as it gains latest permit

Shade Equity: To Understand the Problem — and the Solutions — Look to Tucson

OpenAI’s Secrets are Revealed in Empire of AI

Costa Rica’s Nayara Resorts Plans Eco-Friendly Beach Hotel in Manuel Antonio

Suggested Viewing

Small Footprints: Crafting an Eco-Lodge in Wild Alaska

The Wisdom To Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism & Community

Modern Nature

The Custodians of the Andean Gold

Green Waste

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

This seaside town will power thousands of homes with waves

How wave energy works

Coexisting with fisheries

Where wave energy could thrive

Related News

L.A. County sues oil companies over unplugged oil wells in Inglewood

California’s last nuclear power plant faces renewed scrutiny as it gains latest permit

Shade Equity: To Understand the Problem — and the Solutions — Look to Tucson

OpenAI’s Secrets are Revealed in Empire of AI

Costa Rica’s Nayara Resorts Plans Eco-Friendly Beach Hotel in Manuel Antonio

Suggested Viewing

Small Footprints: Crafting an Eco-Lodge in Wild Alaska

The Wisdom To Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism & Community

Modern Nature

The Custodians of the Andean Gold

Green Waste

Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Join us to forge
a sustainable future