Keystone pipeline operator agrees to pay $26.9m penalty over Kansas oil spill

Proposed legal settlement over 2022 oil spill would resolve allegations that South Bow violated clean water laws This photo taken with a drone shows the area where the ruptured Keystone pipeline dumped oil into a creek in Washington county, Kansas, on 9 December 2022.  Photograph: AP A proposed legal settlement with the US government would require the Keystone pipelin

World First: Scientists Witnessed a Piece of Earth’s Oceanic Crust Being Born

Bathymetry of the seafloor around the Southeast Indian Rift where two tectonic plates abruptly opened a portal to the magmatic underworld in April 2024. (Royer et al., Nature, 2026) Most of our planet's crust is forged in a thalassic factory human eyes never see. Across 65,000 kilometers (40,400 miles) of the ocean floor, a system of mid-ocean ridges marks the boundaries where Earth's

After Refusing $26M to Turn Farm Into AI Data Center, Mom and Daughter Join Fight Against Mysterious Fortune 100 Company

The spread of data centers is roiling communities nationwide. In Kentucky, Ida Huddleston and Delsia Bare are holding tight to their ancestral land From left: Ida Huddleston and Delsia Bare and their farm in Kentucky.Credit : Glenn Hartong (2) Starting at age 11, Delsia Bare had a routine after school. She would saddle up her horse and ride along the perimeter of her famil

$130 billion in AI data centers has been blocked or delayed this year; here’s what you need to know

The first quarter of 2026 saw the most blocked and delayed data center projects on record A generic photo of a data center (Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.) The booming AI data center industry has been fraught with controversy and growing resistance, with seven in 10 Americans reportedly against constructing them in their area, nearly half of whom were strong

66 billion trees have been planted in China’s Great Green Wall — and they appear to be growing faster than natural forests

A study of China's planted and natural forests reveals age, species mix, and CO2 sensitivity all contribute to how fast trees sprout leaves. An aerial view of China's Great Green Wall, a huge project designed to slow the spread of the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts. (Image credit: PEDRO PARDO via Getty Images) Trees in China that were planted as part of huge reforesta

86-Year-Old Farmer Turns Down $15 Million Offer From Data Center Developers

An 86-year-old Pennsylvania  farmer is going viral — not for selling his land, but for refusing to. Mervin Raudabaugh Mervin Raudabaugh, a  dairy farmer in Cumberland County, says he has owned his 261 acres for more than 60 years. He spent 51 of those years as a dairy farmer, building not just a livelihood, but a legacy. Recently, he says he was offered $15 million from a data cen

Tribe Sues Feds for Planned Mass Removal of Wild Horse Herd on Ancestral Lands

A California tribe is suing the federal government to stop the removal of more than 600 wild horses from its homelands. Wild horses in Montgomery Pass. Credit: (photo/Indigenous Wild Horse Society Facebook) The Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation filed a federal lawsuit today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, demanding that the court halt a

Cheyenne BOPU traces rare bacteria discharge to Meta data center contractor

CHEYENNE — The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has identified Goat Systems LLC, a contractor working on Meta's in-progress data center campus in the High Plains Business Park, as the source of a discharge that introduced the bacteria Cupriavidus gilardii into the city's wastewater treatment system. Frank Strong, BOPU's engineering and water resource division manager, told the Wyoming Tribune

As the Ocean Warms, a ‘Cold Blob’ in the Atlantic Has Puzzled Scientists. It Might Be a Warning Sign About a Key Current System

A patch of water south of Greenland and Iceland has cooled by nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. A new study suggests that it shows a crucial system of ocean currents is weakening, which could alter Earth’s climate The "cold blob," shown in blue near the top, is also called the Atlantic "warming hole." NASA SVS The ocean has been heating up over the past century, largely due to hum

Researchers pinpoint when the Vikings came to Canada. It was exactly 1,000 years ago

It's long been known that the Vikings were the first Europeans to make the long journey to the Americas, arriving in what is now Canada sometime around the end of the first millennium. At the L'Anse aux Meadows historical site in Newfoundland, Canada, a 10th or 11th century Viking home is depicted. The settlement is the only confirmed Norse archeological site in the Americas outside of