Inside Ohio’s Revolt Against Data Centers

By NYA Staff

Europe's great rivers have always been more than just beautiful scenery. They are transportation routes, sources of drinking and industrial water, generators of electricity and, in many cases, the reason major cities and industries developed where they did.

Now climate change is threatening that infrastructure in a way that could have consequences far beyond the environment.

A recent New York Times opinion essay by journalist Ben Coates highlights how the severe drought has affected some of Europe's major waterways. The Danube, Rhine and Po have all reached very low water levels, disrupting shipping and creating problems for industries that depend on rivers for transportation, cooling and power.

Coates points to an increasingly important connection: Europe's economic goals depend on a geography that may no longer work the way it once did.

The Rhine, for example, has long been a critical industrial and commercial highway connecting the heart of Europe with ports such as Rotterdam. The Danube provides an important transportation route through Eastern Europe and has become particularly significant for moving Ukrainian agricultural products.

When water levels fall too far, the consequences spread beyond the riverbanks. Cargo vessels must reduce their loads or stop operating. Industries can face disruptions because raw materials and finished products can't move efficiently. Power plants that rely on river water for cooling can also be affected.

And this comes at an awkward time for Europe.

The continent is already trying to become less dependent on foreign energy, technology and military resources. It is investing heavily in renewable energy, attempting to reduce its dependence on Russia and trying to compete with China's increasingly powerful manufacturing sector.

European leaders frequently describe this goal as "strategic autonomy"—the ability to rely less on outside countries for essential goods, energy and security.

But there is a problem with that strategy: Europe also depends heavily on its own physical infrastructure, and some of that infrastructure is becoming less dependable.

For decades, Europe's rivers provided a relatively inexpensive and efficient way to move enormous quantities of goods. They helped create industrial centers and connected landlocked parts of the continent to global markets.

If those waterways become routinely too shallow for commercial shipping, Europe will need alternatives.

That could mean more rail lines, expanded highways, new pipelines, additional ports and different energy and water systems. Building those alternatives would require enormous investments and could take decades.

There is also a larger lesson here for travelers.

Europe's rivers have shaped the continent's geography and tourism as much as its economy. The Rhine and Danube are among Europe's most popular river-cruise routes, linking cities and historic towns that have depended on these waterways for centuries.

A future of increasingly unpredictable water levels could change that experience as well. Cruise operators may have to alter itineraries, reduce passenger loads or substitute buses and other transportation when sections of rivers become unnavigable.

The Times essay's larger warning is therefore worth considering: climate change isn't simply changing the weather. It can change the usefulness of the infrastructure—and even the geography—that modern economies were built around.

Europe spent centuries building a civilization around its rivers.

It may now have to figure out how to function when those rivers can no longer be counted on.

Source: Ben Coates, “Europe’s Great Rivers Are Dying. The Continent Is In for a Shock,” The New York Times, Aug. 15, 2026.

Her name is CHRISTINA, and back in 1996, she faced a DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER underwater

While diving, a shark charged directly at her. Instead of attacking, it circled, showing a fishing hook lodged in its mouth. She took the risk and removed it. Following that moment, other injured sharks approached her for help over the next 20 years.

Despite heavy opposition from family and friends, she removed over 300 hooks without ever being harmed. Fear yields to purpose when you master your instincts.

NYA Thanks @interlinkmindsets!

By Oliver Milman in Kerrville, Texas

Most Americans feel unease or alarm about the climate crisis and, in both red and blue states, want to know how political leaders are going to fix it. But in midterm election campaigns across the US, candidates have responded to this desire with near silence.

People in the US have this year endured a record hot summer as well as soaring costs, equating to roughly $2,000 per household, in extra energy and mortgage payments, due to the country’s dependence on a fossil fuel supply scrambled by Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

Yet the unfolding climate crisis, and the imperative to transition to cleaner, less volatile forms of energy, has been starkly absent on campaign trails before the midterms in three weeks’ time. Even among previously pro-green Democrats, 2026 has seen a widespread climate omerta.

NYA Editorial Staff

GENEVA — A major climate report warns that an exceptionally powerful El Niño pattern could lead to more than 450,000 additional heat-related deaths worldwide over the coming months. The findings highlight the growing mortal danger of extreme heat as natural weather anomalies collide with long-term global warming.

According to projections by the Climate Impact Lab, the spike in mortality will disproportionately affect developing nations across the Global South. Tropical regions in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America are forecasted to suffer the heaviest casualties, driven by sharp increases in the number of dangerously hot days.

By Phil Baker - NYA

Tanya Tucker, the famous country music singer is not a person you might expect to become a leading voice in the growing fight over AI data centers. But according to a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, she’s found herself on the front lines of a battle in her home state of Texas.

Tucker lives on a 250-acre family property in central Texas with her partner, country musician Craig Dillingham. They face the prospect of huge transmission lines crossing their land to supply a network of data centers being built throughout the state. The proposed Texas transmission system would stretch thousands of miles, with towers reaching 180 feet into the air.

She contends that technological progress shouldn't mean that citizens need to surrender their land and accept the consequences without having a say in the decision.

By NYA Staff

Amazon building an enormous, polluting power plant
Amazon is building an enormous data center in West Texas that could come with an environmental cost unlike anything the company has faced before. To supply the electricity needed to run the facility, Amazon is investing in a natural-gas power plant that, if operated at the limits allowed by its permits, could emit as much as 33 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

That would make it the largest single source of permitted carbon emissions from a U.S. power plant—more than twice the emissions of the country’s current largest emitter, the coal-fired James H. Miller Jr. Power Plant in Alabama.

AI requires enormous power
The project illustrates a growing problem confronting the technology industry: AI requires enormous amounts of electricity, and the tech companies are increasingly willing to turn to fossil fuels to get it.

Amazon's new data center will be in Pecos County, Texas, where a developer is constructing a dedicated power plant using 35 natural-gas turbines capable of generating up to 7.65 gigawatts of electricity. Rather than waiting for a connection to the Texas power grid, the facility will initially generate its own electricity.

That approach is becoming increasingly attractive to technology companies racing to build their AI infrastructure. AI systems require vast computing power, and the data centers running them consume far more electricity than traditional facilities. Getting enough power from utilities has become a major obstacle to building new plants.

Natural gas is a shortcut. Gas-fired generators can be built relatively quickly and can operate around the clock, unlike solar and wind installations that depend on weather conditions. Companies under enormous pressure to expand their AI businesses, are not willing to wait for less polluting sources.

Forgetting their previous pledge
But Amazon's decision contradicts the company’s previous commitments. The company was one of the founders of the Climate Pledge, promising to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Yet Amazon's emissions have increased in recent years, and the company has acknowledged that the rapid expansion of AI data centers is making its climate goals difficult to achieve.

Amazon says its commitment has not changed. The company also says it is exploring solar power and battery storage for the Texas facility and argues that generating electricity on-site will avoid putting additional pressure on Texas households and the state's electrical grid.

The environmental consequences extend beyond climate change. Natural-gas plants emit nitrogen oxides and other pollutants that contribute to smog and can impact respiratory and cardiovascular problems. A plant of this scale could therefore affect both global emissions and local air quality.

Amazon's Texas project is an example of a much larger issue. As AI usage expands, technology companies are increasingly building their own power plants rather than depending on utilities. If those plants are primarily powered by natural gas, AI will produce a significant new source of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Scientists are now estimating the Kelvin Wave sea rise at 1/2 foot.

A slow-moving oceanic phenomenon known as a Kelvin wave is heading toward the California coast and could raise sea levels there by as much as a foot, according to reporting from The Guardian. Scientists say the wave, a planetary-scale surge of warm water thousands of miles across, forms when Pacific trade winds weaken or reverse during El Niño years, sending water that normally piles up near Asia sloshing back toward the Americas. NASA researcher Severine Fournier explained that the wave travels along the equator before splitting north and south once it reaches South America, with one such wave now advancing up the West Coast and expected to reach California within days.

NOAA scientist Nate Mantua noted the phenomenon is a natural, centuries-old occurrence, but stressed it will now stack on top of roughly eight inches of sea-level rise already recorded over the past century. This year's El Niño is shaping up to be one of the strongest on record, and researchers warn its effects — including elevated tides, stronger storms, and increased flooding risk — could compound each other, particularly if storms coincide with seasonal high tides expected around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency to pre-position resources such as road-clearing equipment and National Guard support ahead of possible winter storms. The California Coastal Commission has also urged residents in flood- or erosion-prone areas to prepare in advance, with the commission's director warning that storms arriving during high tide tend to cause substantially more damage than those hitting at low tide.

Source: The Guardian, reporting by Nick Visser, Sept. 28, 2026.

By Phil Baker - NYA

Scientists investigating this week's deadly flash flooding in Nepal and Tibet believe a landslide, triggered when a large section of bedrock beneath a Himalayan glacier gave way, combined with a chunk of glacial ice breaking off and crashing down the mountainside, unleashing the disaster. Researchers point to a broader climate pattern: as global warming thaws the permafrost that has long stabilized rock and ice in the Himalayas, mountain slopes are becoming increasingly prone to this kind of catastrophic failure. However, experts caution that pinning the exact cause solely on climate change would be premature, noting that a mix of long-term warming trends and shorter-term factors, such as recent snowmelt, likely contributed, with fuller analysis still months away.

NYA Staff

We tend to think of flooding as a weather problem. But the storms we're seeing that are increasing in their intensity may need to be thought about differently..

The latest example is Indiana, where several days of extraordinary rainfall have produced widespread flooding, deaths, evacuations and major power outages. The Guardian reports that some parts of the state received more than 11 inches of rain in just two days. The White River rose above 24 feet in parts of the state, breaking records that had stood since 1913. First responders were forced to use boats to rescue residents, including people in areas that haven't been considered particularly vulnerable to flooding in the past.

At least five people have died as of Saturday, according to officials cited by the Guardian. The numbers are staggering, a result of flooding occurring in areas that haven't traditionally experienced it. We tend to build our assumptions about the weather from the past. Flood maps are based on historical data. Roads, drainage systems, homes and emergency plans are designed around what communities have typically experienced over the years.

But what happens when typical changes? That's the problem we're seeing more often with extreme weather. A neighborhood that has never flooded may suddenly flood. A drainage system designed for heavy rain may be overwhelmed by an extraordinary downpour. Roads that drivers have used safely for decades can become dangerous within minutes. In other words, our baseline is changing and our past experience of dealing with weather extremes is becoming less relevant.

The Indiana disaster also raises a larger question about how we prepare for extreme weather. If rainfall that once seemed like a once-in-a-century event is becoming more common, communities may have to rethink everything from drainage and flood maps to emergency communications and where new homes are built. The real challenge is preparing for a climate in which yesterday's definition of "extreme" may no longer be extreme enough.

Source: Uwa Ede-Osifo and agencies, “At least five people dead in Indiana amid worst flooding in over 30 years, officials say” The Guardian, Aug. 15, 2026.