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Google’s Emissions Climb Nearly 50% in Five Years Due to AI Energy Demand (Maria)
The author writes, “Google’s goal of reducing its climate footprint is in jeopardy as it relies on more and more energy-hungry data centers to power its new artificial intelligence products. The tech giant revealed Tuesday that its greenhouse gas emissions have climbed 48% over the past five years. Google said electricity consumption by data centers and supply chain emissions were the primary cause of the increase. … Google’s emissions have risen by nearly 50% since 2019, the base year for Google’s goal of reaching net zero, which requires the company removing as much CO2 as it emits.”
To Serve His Country, Donald Trump Should Leave the Race (Dana)
From The Philadelphia Inquirer: “President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race. But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office. In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.”
Voters Kick All the Republican Women Out of the South Carolina Senate (Sean)
The author writes, “The only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate took on their party and stopped a total abortion ban from passing in their state last year. In return, they lost their jobs. Voters removed Sens. Sandy Senn, Penry Gustafson, and Katrina Shealy from office during sparsely turned out primaries in June, and by doing so completely vacated the Republican wing of the five-member ‘Sister Senators,’ a female contingent that included two Democrats and was joined in their opposition to the abortion ban. For Republicans, the departure of Senn, Gustafson, and Shealy likely means there will be no women in the majority party of the state Senate when the next session starts in 2025. It could also mean that women will not wield power for decades in the fiercely conservative state where they have long struggled to gain entry into the Legislature.”
The Loneliness of the Woman Voter (Reader Steve)
From The Seattle Times: “In the fire hose of news this past week, the airlifts are an image that needs more attention. ‘We are now living in two very different United States,’ was how one Seattle-area health care provider summed up the dystopian situation. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that Idaho hospitals could resume providing emergency abortion care to ill pregnant women, but only temporarily, the story also emerged about how strained that care had become. Since January, emergency services have been airlifting women, often hemorrhaging or in sepsis, out of Idaho rather than treating them there.”
Australia To Introduce World-First Vape Ban as Government Strikes Deal with Greens (Russ)
The author writes, “The [Prime Minister] Albanese government has watered down its proposed vaping laws and struck a deal with the Greens to introduce a world-first ban. From Monday 1 July, it [is] unlawful to supply, manufacture, import, or sell a vape outside of a pharmacy setting. … Under the legislation, vapes will only be available behind the pharmacy counter and will not be available to under-18s unless they have a prescription from a doctor.”
How Water Could Be the Future of Fuel (Gerry)
The authors write, “Turning hydrogen into liquid fuel could help slash planet-warming pollution from heavy vehicles, cutting a key source of emissions that contribute to climate change. But to fulfill that promise, companies will have to build massive numbers of wind turbines and solar panels to power the energy-hungry process. Regulators will have to make sure hydrogen production doesn’t siphon green energy that could go towards cleaning up other sources of global warming gases, such as homes or factories.”
Can the Republic Survive Corrupt Presidents? (Al)
From Law & Liberty: “Insuperable difficulties are posed to the republic when executive power is held by dishonorable men: men who lack virtue. The kind of men who in private life think it unnecessary to pay their bills, plagiarize, cheat at golf or on their wives, or who use the office to help line their own pockets. Above all else, though, an unvirtuous president would not care to make a good-faith effort to distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable uses of executive discretion.”
