Category: The Conversation – USA

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence has sharply increased electricity and water consumption, raising concerns about the technology’s environmental footprint and carbon emissions. But the story is more complicated than that.

I study emerging technologies and how their development and deployment influence economic, institutional and societal outcomes, including environmental sustainability. From my research, I see that even as AI uses a lot of energy, it can also make systems cleaner and smarter.

AI is already helping to save energy and water, cut emissions and make businesses more efficient in agriculture, data centers, the energy industry, building heating and cooling, and aviation.

Agriculture

Agriculture is responsible for nearly 70% of the world’s freshwater use, and competition for water is growing.

AI is helping farmers use water more efficiently. Argentinian climate tech startup Kilimo, for example, tackles water scarcity with an AI-powered irrigation platform. The software uses large amounts of data, machine learning, and weather and satellite measurements to determine when and how much to water which areas of fields, ensuring that only the plants that actually need water receive it.

Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture has found that in that country’s Biobío region, farms using Kilimo’s precision irrigation systems have reduced water use by up to 30% while avoiding overirrigation. Using less water also reduces the amount of energy needed to pump it from the ground and around a farm.

Kilimo is one example that shows how AI can create economic incentives for sustainability: The amount of water farmers save from precision irrigation is verified, and credits for those savings are sold to local companies that want to offset some of their water use. The farmers then earn a profit – often 20% to 40% above their initial investment.

Data centers

U.S. data centers consumed about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, accounting for roughly 4.4% of total U.S. electricity use. This number increased to 183 TWh in 2024. This growing energy footprint has made improving data center efficiency a critical priority for the operators of the data centers themselves, as well as the companies that rely on them – including cloud providers, tech firms and large enterprises running AI workloads – both to reduce costs and meet sustainability and regulatory goals.

AI is helping data centers become more efficient. The number of global internet users grew from 1.9 billion in 2010 to 5.6 billion in 2025. Global internet traffic surged from 20.2 exabytes per month in 2010 to 521.9 exabytes per month in 2025 – a more than 25-fold increase.

Despite the surge in internet traffic and users, data center electricity consumption has grown more moderately, rising from 1% of global electricity use in 2010 to 2% in 2025. Much of this is thanks to efficiency gains, including those enabled by AI.

AI systems analyze operational data in data centers – including workloads, temperature, cooling efficiency and energy use – to spot energy-hungry tasks. It adjusts computing resources to match demand and optimizes cooling. This lets data centers run smoothly without wasting electricity.

At Microsoft, AI is improving energy efficiency by using predictive analytics to schedule computing tasks. This lets servers enter low-power modes during periods of low demand, saving electricity during slower times. Meta uses AI to control cooling and airflow in its data centers. The systems stay safe while using less energy than they might otherwise.

In Frankfurt, Germany, Equinix uses AI to manage cooling and adjust energy use at its data center based on real-time weather. This improved operational efficiency by 9%, The New York Times reported.

Energy and fuels

Energy companies are using AI to boost efficiency and cut emissions. They deploy drones with cameras to inspect pipelines. AI systems analyze the images to more quickly detect corrosion, cracks, dents and leaks, which allows problems to be addressed before they escalate, improving overall safety and reliability.

Shell has AI systems that monitor methane emissions from its facilities by analyzing methane concentrations and wind data, such as speed and direction. This helps the system track how methane disperses, enabling it to pinpoint emission sources and optimize energy use. By identifying the largest leaks quickly, the system allows targeted maintenance and operational adjustments to further reduce emissions. Using that technology, the company says it aims to nearly eliminate methane leaks by 2030.

AI could speed up innovation in clean energy by improving solar panels, batteries and carbon-capture systems. In the longer term, it could enable major breakthroughs, including advanced biofuels or even usable nuclear fusion, while helping track and manage carbon-absorbing resources such as forests, wetlands and carbon storage facilities.

Shell uses AI across its operations to cut emissions. Its process optimizer for liquefied natural gas analyzes sensor data to find more efficient equipment settings, boosting energy efficiency and reducing emissions.

Buildings and district heating

The energy needed to heat, cool and power buildings is responsible for roughly 28% of total global emissions. AI initiatives are starting to reduce building emissions through smart management and predictive optimization.

In downtown Copenhagen, for instance, the local utility company HOFOR deployed thousands of sensors tracking temperatures, humidity and building energy flows. The system uses information about each building to forecast heating needs 24 hours in advance and automatically adjust supply to match demand.

The Copenhagen system was first piloted in schools and multifamily housing, with support from the Nordic Smart City Network and climate-innovation grants. It has since expanded to dozens of sites. Results were clear: Across participating buildings, energy use fell 15% to 25%, peak heating demand dropped by up to 30%, and carbon dioxide emissions decreased by around 10,000 tonnes per year.

AI can also help households and offices save energy. Smart home systems optimize heating, cooling and appliance use. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that by adopting AI, medium-sized office buildings in the U.S. could reduce energy use by 21% and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 35%.

Aviation

About 2% of all human-caused carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 came from aviation, which emitted about 882 megatons of carbon dioxide.

Contrails, the thin ice clouds formed when aircraft exhaust freezes at cruising altitudes, contribute more than one-third of aviation’s overall warming effect by trapping heat in the atmosphere. AI can optimize flight routes and altitudes in real time to reduce contrail formation by avoiding areas where the air is more humid and therefore more likely to produce contrails.

Airlines have also used AI to improve fuel efficiency. In 2023, Alaska Airlines used 1.2 million gallons less fuel by using AI to analyze weather, wind, turbulence, airspace restrictions and traffic to recommend the most efficient routes, saving around 5% on fuel and emissions for longer flights.

In short, AI affects the environment in both positive and negative ways. Already, it has helped industries cut energy use, lower emissions and use water more efficiently. Expanding these solutions could drive a cleaner, more sustainable planet.

Nir Kshetri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Despite its steep environmental costs, AI might also help save the planet – https://theconversation.com/despite-its-steep-environmental-costs-ai-might-also-help-save-the-planet-272474

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Associate Professor of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara

The Trump administration’s recent surge of more than 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, is creating ripple effects for students, teachers and parents that go well beyond ongoing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. These protests escalated after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7, 2026.

Some Twin Cities parents are arranging security patrols to look out for ICE agents, while others are keeping their kids home altogether. Several large Minneapolis-St. Paul school districts announced on Jan. 15 that they would offer remote learning so students could stay home.

Amy Lieberman, The Conversation U.S. education editor, spoke with Carolyn-Sattin-Bajaj, a scholar of education and immigrant youth, to better understand what regulations restrict ICE’s presence at schools – and how schools can support students and parents concerned about the recent surge of immigrant arrests and deportations in Minnesota.

What prevents ICE from walking into a school building?

The Obama administration issued a memo in 2011 that said federal officials should not conduct immigration enforcement work near sensitive locations, meaning schools and houses of worship. The Biden administration also had this policy in place.

President Donald Trump revoked this memo in January 2025. So now, schools are no longer off-limits to federal immigration agencies, including ICE.

That doesn’t mean ICE or Border Patrol agents can march into a school building to arrest someone. While these officers can freely enter public areas of a school, like a parking lot or lobby, school officials are not legally obligated to admit ICE agents into private spaces like classrooms. ICE officers can enter a classroom if they show a valid federal judicial warrant, signed by a judge – or if there are extreme circumstances that allow them to legally circumvent having a warrant.

School officials are also not required to release information about which kids are enrolled at their school or not, and schools do not collect information about students’ immigration status, so that data cannot be shared.

Some school districts have been developing or revising protocols on how to respond if ICE comes to their schools. A lot of these protocols
include recommendations on naming a district superintendent or another local official as the point person for ICE.

How unprecedented is it for ICE to arrest people outside or inside a school?

ICE’s presence at – or near – schools has significantly increased under the second Trump administration.

We have seen violence on school grounds, with ICE attacking students and protesters at Roosevelt High School on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. In Crystal, Minn., a student’s parent was arrested by ICE personnel on Jan. 14 while waiting for their child at a bus stop.

Even just the threat of ICE agents approaching and arresting people en route to school, or at a school itself, is changing people’s behavior. Some parents in Minnesota and other places no longer take their children to and from school, and have to find other ways to get their kids there. This also affects how many people come to community events and activities held at school.

At one California middle school, the annual moving-up ceremony for students typically held outside had to be delayed in June 2025 after there was a credible rumor that ICE was planning to show up. The district had procedures in place. Because the event was held in an open public space, administrators were stationed at every entrance in case ICE agents turned up – though they didn’t. However, some graduates did not have any relatives there to watch them watch across the stage during the ceremony.

What other considerations are at the forefront of school administrators’ minds in regard to ICE?

The question that is top of mind for many district administrators, school leaders, teachers and other school personnel is “What happens if ICE shows up at our school?”

I think it is important that districts and schools have a clear plan in place that is widely communicated to all adults working in schools, and to students and parents. This should be paired with straightforward and recurrent training for educators on what they might expect if ICE comes to their schools and how to put their schools’ plans in place.

Yet, considering what to do if ICE comes to a school is just the tip of the iceberg. There are approximately 1.5 million children under 18 who are undocumented immigrants and about 4.4 million U.S.-born children who are citizens but have at least one undocumented parent. Many of these students are experiencing significant hardship, including interruptions to their schooling, and other forms of instability that affect their ability to learn and overall well-being.

What does your research show on the effects immigration enforcement can have on these students?

My research in seven large California school districts, conducted in 2021, showed that immigration arrests were linked to declines in students’ academic achievement, attendance and other measures of a school’s climate and safety for these students. The biggest declines were among Latino students, especially those who were English language learners.

In another 2023 study of an immigration workplace raid in Texas, a colleague and I found increased student absenteeism, declines in reading and math test scores, and sharp rises in the number of high school students leaving the district. Most often, it was the Latino and multilingual students enrolled in schools in the four counties closest to the raid who were not attending school immediately after the event, or experienced declining test scores.

These consequences persisted. Some of these students were less likely than others to later enroll in four-year colleges. Significantly, not just students who are most likely to have relatives targeted for deportation experienced these effects.

My own research and that of other scholars also show that many teachers are not well prepared for the current realities. But they are eager to know more about their immigrant students’ rights, the resources available to them and how they can serve as allies and advocates.

I believe that to best support students during these troubling times, teachers need better training and guidance on how to navigate challenging conversations about immigration enforcement threats, and how to deal with students’ (and their own) anxiety, uncertainty and trauma.

Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj receives funding from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Spencer Foundation

– ref. Federal immigration enforcement near schools disrupts attendance, traumatizes students and damages their academic performance – https://theconversation.com/federal-immigration-enforcement-near-schools-disrupts-attendance-traumatizes-students-and-damages-their-academic-performance-273325

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Robin Pickering, Professor and Chair of Public Health, Gonzaga University

As Americans increasingly report feeling overwhelmed by daily life, many are using self-care to cope. Conversations and social media feeds are saturated with the language of “me time,” burnout, boundaries and nervous system regulation.

To meet this demand, the wellness industry has grown into a multitrillion-dollar global market. Myriad providers offer products, services and lifestyle prescriptions that promise calm, balance and restoration.

Paradoxically, though, even as interest in self-care continues to grow, Americans’ mental health is getting worse.

I am a professor of public health who studies health behaviors and the gap between intentions and outcomes. I became interested in this self-care paradox recently, after I suffered from a concussion. I was prescribed two months of strictly screen-free cognitive rest – no television, email, Zooming, social media, streaming or texting.

The benefits were almost immediate, and they surprised me. I slept better, had a longer attention span and had a newfound sense of mental quiet. These effects reflected a well-established principle in neuroscience: When cognitive and emotional stimuli decrease, the brain’s regulatory systems can recover from overload and chronic stress.

Obviously, most people can’t go 100% screen-free for days, much less months, but the underlying principle offers a powerful lesson for practicing effective self-care.

A nation under strain

Americans’ self-rated mental health is now at the lowest point since Gallup started tracking this issue in 2001. National surveys consistently detect high levels of stress and emotional strain.

Roughly one-third of U.S. adults report feeling overwhelmed most days. Sleep disruption, anxiety, poor concentration and emotional exhaustion are widespread, particularly among young adults and women.

Chronic disease patterns mirror this strain. When daily stress becomes chronic, it can trigger biological changes that increase the risk of long-term conditions like heart disease and diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 6 in 10 U.S. adults live with at least one chronic condition, and 4 in 10 live with multiple chronic conditions.

How people try to cope

Many Americans say they actively practice self-care in everyday life. For example, they describe taking mental health days, protecting personal time, setting boundaries around work and prioritizing rest and leisure.

The problem lies in how they use that leisure time.

Over the past 22 years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey has consistently found that watching television is the most popular leisure activity for U.S. adults. Americans spend far more time watching TV than exercising, spending time with friends or practicing reflection through activities like yoga. Other common self-care activities include watching movies and gaming.

Modern leisure time increasingly includes smartphone use. Surveys suggest that mobile phones have become the dominant screen for many Americans, with adults spending several hours per day on their phones.

For many adults, checking social media or watching short videos has become a default relaxation behavior layered on top of traditional screen use. This practice is often referred to as second screening.

Although many people turn to screen-based activities to wind down, these activities may have the opposite effect biologically.

Why modern screen use feels different

Pre-internet forms of leisure often involved activities such as watching scheduled television programs, listening to radio broadcasts or reading books and magazines. For all of these pastimes, the content followed a predictable sequence with natural stopping points.

Today’s digital media environment looks very different. People routinely engage with multiple screens at once, respond to frequent notifications and switch rapidly between several streams of content. These environments continuously require users to split their attention, engage their emotions and make decisions.

This type of mental multitasking draws on the same neural systems people are often attempting to rest with leisure. The result is a far more fragmented and cognitively demanding environment than in the past.

Americans now spend approximately six to seven hours per day on screens across multiple devices. Splitting attention between more than one screen at a time, such as using the phone while watching television, is common. This juggling exposes peoples’ brains to multiple streams of sensory and emotional input simultaneously.

Survey data also suggests that Americans may check their phones roughly 200 times per day. In doing so, they repeatedly pull their attention back to screens during routine moments.

Modern digital platforms are designed to maximize engagement. Algorithms tend to prioritize emotionally arousing content, particularly anger, anxiety and outrage. These feelings drive clicks, sharing and time spent on platforms. Research has shown that this design is associated with higher stress, distraction and cognitive load.

When ‘rest’ doesn’t restore

Against the backdrop of daily hassles and competing demands, it can feel like relief to flip on the TV. Practices such as streaming or so-called bed-rotting – spending extended periods in bed while scrolling – often are framed as a form of radical rest or self-care.

Other common coping behaviors include leaving the television on as background noise, scrolling between tasks throughout the day or using phones during meals and conversations. These strategies can feel restful because they temporarily reduce external demands and decision-making.

However, pairing rest with screen use may undermine the very restoration that people are seeking. Digital media stimulate attention, emotion and sensory processing. Even while people are sitting or lying still, being onscreen can keep their nervous systems in a heightened state of arousal. It may look like downtime, but it doesn’t create the biological conditions for restoration.

How to wind down

Evidence suggests that mental relief comes not from adding new coping strategies, but from reducing the number of demands placed on the brain.

Here are some evidence-based strategies that support genuine restoration:

• Reduce digital multitasking, such as using your phone while watching television. This lowers stress and cognitive strain.

• Limit task-switching and interruptions. This improves focus and reduces cognitive fatigue.

• Spend time in low-stimulation environments, including quiet spaces and outdoor settings. This supports mood and emotional well-being.

• Unwind with analog or low-novelty activities, such as reading print, journaling, gentle movement or device-free walking. These pastimes allow mental engagement without overload.

The goal is to intentionally reduce mental load, not to abandon all digital devices.

To improve well-being in our overstimulated society, it’s important to understand the difference between feeling as though you are unwinding and actually allowing your brain and body to recover. In my view, fewer screens, fewer inputs, fewer emotional demands and more protected time for genuine cognitive rest are important components of an effective wellness strategy.

Robin Pickering does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why ‘unwinding’ with screens may be making us more stressed – here’s what to try instead – https://theconversation.com/why-unwinding-with-screens-may-be-making-us-more-stressed-heres-what-to-try-instead-272887

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By André O. Hudson, Dean of the College of Science, Professor of Biochemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology

Imagine going to the hospital for a bacterial ear infection and hearing your doctor say, “We’re out of options.” It may sound dramatic, but antibiotic resistance is pushing that scenario closer to becoming reality for an increasing number of people. In 2016, a woman from Nevada died from a bacterial infection that was resistant to all 26 antibiotics that were available in the United States at that time.

The U.S. alone sees more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant illnesses each year. Globally, antimicrobial resistance is linked to nearly 5 million deaths annually.

Bacteria naturally evolve in ways that can make the drugs meant to kill them less effective. However, when antibiotics are overused or used improperly in medicine or agriculture, these pressures accelerate the process of resistance.

As resistant bacteria spread, lifesaving treatments face new complications – common infections become harder to treat, and routine surgeries become riskier. Slowing these threats to modern medicine requires not only responsible antibiotic use and good hygiene, but also awareness of how everyday actions influence resistance.

Since the inception of antibiotics in 1910 with the introduction of Salvarsan, a synthetic drug used to treat syphilis, scientists have been sounding the alarm about resistance. As a microbiologist and biochemist who studies antimicrobial resistance, I see four major trends that will shape how we as a society will confront antibiotic resistance in the coming decade.

1. Faster diagnostics are the new front line

For decades, treating bacterial infections has involved a lot of educated guesswork. When a very sick patient arrives at the hospital and clinicians don’t yet know the exact bacteria causing the illness, they often start with a broad-spectrum antibiotic. These drugs kill many different types of bacteria at once, which can be lifesaving — but they also expose a wide range of other bacteria in the body to antibiotics. While some bacteria are killed, the ones that remain continue to multiply and spread resistance genes between different bacterial species. That unnecessary exposure gives harmless or unrelated bacteria a chance to adapt and develop resistance.

In contrast, narrow-spectrum antibiotics target only a small group of bacteria. Clinicians typically prefer these types of antibiotics because they treat the infection without disturbing bacteria that are not involved in the infection. However, it can take several days to identify the exact bacteria causing the infection. During that waiting period, clinicians often feel they have no choice but to start broad-spectrum treatment – especially if the patient is seriously ill.

But new technology may fast-track identification of bacterial pathogens, allowing medical tests to be conducted right where the patient is instead of sending samples off-site and waiting a long time for answers. In addition, advances in genomic sequencing, microfluidics and artificial intelligence tools are making it possible to identify bacterial species and effective antibiotics to fight them in hours rather than days. Predictive tools can even anticipate resistance evolution.

For clinicians, better tests could help them make faster diagnoses and more effective treatment plans that won’t exacerbate resistance. For researchers, these tools point to an urgent need to integrate diagnostics with real-time surveillance networks capable of tracking resistance patterns as they emerge.

Diagnostics alone will not solve resistance, but they provide the precision, speed and early warning needed to stay ahead.

2. Expanding beyond traditional antibiotics

Antibiotics transformed medicine in the 20th century, but relying on them alone won’t carry humanity through the 21st. The pipeline of new antibiotics remains distressingly thin, and most drugs currently in development are structurally similar to existing antibiotics, potentially limiting their effectiveness.

To stay ahead, researchers are investing in nontraditional therapies, many of which work in fundamentally different ways than standard antibiotics.

One promising direction is bacteriophage therapy, which uses viruses that specifically infect and kill harmful bacteria. Others are exploring microbiome-based therapies that restore healthy bacterial communities to crowd out pathogens.

Researchers are also developing CRISPR-based antimicrobials, using gene-editing tools to precisely disable resistance genes. New compounds like antimicrobial peptides, which puncture the membranes of bacteria to kill them, show promise as next-generation drugs. Meanwhile, scientists are designing nanoparticle delivery systems to transport antimicrobials directly to infection sites with fewer side effects.

Beyond medicine, scientists are examining ecological interventions to reduce the movement of resistance genes through soil, wastewater and plastics, as well as through waterways and key environmental reservoirs.

Many of these options remain early-stage, and bacteria may eventually evolve around them. But these innovations reflect a powerful shift: Instead of betting on discovering a single antibiotic to address resistance, researchers are building a more diverse and resilient tool kit to fight antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria.

3. Antimicrobial resistance outside hospitals

Antibiotic resistance doesn’t only spread in hospitals. It moves through people, wildlife, crops, wastewater, soil and global trade networks. This broader perspective that takes the principles of One Health into account is essential for understanding how resistance genes travel through ecosystems.

Researchers are increasingly recognizing environmental and agricultural factors as major drivers of resistance, on par with misuse of antibiotics in the clinic. These include how antibiotics used in animal agriculture can create resistant bacteria that spread to people; how resistance genes in wastewater can survive treatment systems and enter rivers and soil; and how farms, sewage plants and other environmental hot spots become hubs where resistance spreads quickly. Even global travel accelerates the movement of resistant bacteria across continents within hours.

Together, these forces show that antibiotic resistance isn’t just an issue for hospitals – it’s an ecological and societal problem. For researchers, this means designing solutions that cross disciplines, integrating microbiology, ecology, engineering, agriculture and public health.

4. Policies on what treatments exist in the future

Drug companies lose money developing new antibiotics. Because new antibiotics are used sparingly in order to preserve their effectiveness, companies often sell too few doses to recoup development costs even after the Food and Drug Administration approves the drugs. Several antibiotic companies have gone bankrupt for this reason.

To encourage antibiotic innovation, the U.S. is considering major policy changes like the PASTEUR Act. This bipartisan bill proposes creating a subscription-style payment model that would allow the federal government up to US$3 billion to pay drug manufacturers over five to 10 years for access to critical antibiotics instead of paying per pill.

Global health organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), caution that the bill should include stronger commitments to stewardship and equitable access.

Still, the bill represents one of the most significant policy proposals related to antimicrobial resistance in U.S. history and could determine what antibiotics exist in the future.

The future of antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic resistance is sometimes framed as an inevitable catastrophe. But I believe the reality is more hopeful: Society is entering an era of smarter diagnostics, innovative therapies, ecosystem-level strategies and policy reforms aimed at rebuilding the antibiotic pipeline in addition to addressing stewardship.

For the public, this means better tools and stronger systems of protection. For researchers and policymakers, it means collaborating in new ways.

The question now isn’t whether there are solutions to antibiotic resistance – it’s whether society will act fast enough to use them.

André O. Hudson, PhD. receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

– ref. Antibiotic resistance could undo a century of medical progress – but four advances are changing the story – https://theconversation.com/antibiotic-resistance-could-undo-a-century-of-medical-progress-but-four-advances-are-changing-the-story-269860

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Steven Lamy, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Relations and Spatial Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

In 2019, during his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed a desire to buy Greenland, which has been a part of Denmark for some 300 years. Danes and Greenlanders quickly rebuffed the offer at the time.

During Trump’s second term, those offers have turned to threats.

Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social in late December 2024 that, for purposes of national security, U.S. control over Greenland was a necessity. The president has continued to insist on the national security rationale into January 2026. And he has refused to rule out the use of military force to control Greenland.

From my perspective as an international relations scholar focused on Europe, Trump’s national security rationale doesn’t make sense. Greenland, like the U.S., is a member of NATO, which provides a collective defense pact, meaning member nations will respond to an attack on any alliance member. And because of a 1951 defense agreement between the U.S. and Denmark, the U.S. can already build military installations in Greenland to protect the region.

Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy, which stresses control of the Western Hemisphere and keeping China out of the region, provides insight into Trump’s thinking.

US interests in Greenland

The United States has tried to acquire Greenland several times.

In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward commissioned a survey of Greenland. Impressed with the abundance of natural resources on the island, he pushed to acquire Greenland and Iceland for US$5.5 million – roughly $125 million today.

But Congress was still concerned about the purchase of Alaska that year, which Seward had engineered. It had seen Alaska as too cold and too distant from the rest of the U.S. to justify spending $7.2 million – roughly $164 million today – although Congress ultimately agreed to do it. There was not enough national support for another frozen land.

In 1910, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark proposed a complex trade involving Germany, Denmark and the United States. Denmark would give the U.S. Greenland, and the U.S. would give Denmark islands in the Philippines. Denmark would then give those islands to Germany, and Germany would return Schleswig-Holstein – Germany’s northernmost state – to Denmark.

But the U.S. quickly dismissed the proposed trade as too audacious.

During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied Denmark, and the U.S. assumed the role of protector of both Greenland and Iceland, both of which belonged to Denmark at the time. The U.S. built airstrips, weather stations and radar and communications stations – five on Greenland’s east coast and nine on the west coast.

The U.S. used Greenland and Iceland as bases for bombers that attacked Germany and German-occupied areas. Greenland had a high value for military strategists because of its location in the North Atlantic – to counter Nazi threats to Allied shipping lanes and protect transatlantic routes, and because it was a midpoint for refueling U.S. aircraft. Greenland’s importance also rested on its deposits of cryolite, useful for making aluminum.

In 1946, the Truman administration offered to buy Greenland for $100 million, as U.S. military leaders thought it would play a critical role in the Cold War.

The secret U.S. project Operation Blue Jay at the beginning of the Cold War resulted in the construction of Thule Air Base in northwestern Greenland, which allowed U.S. bombers to be closer to the Soviet Union. Renamed Pituffik Space Base, today it provides a 24/7 missile warning and space surveillance facility that is critical to NATO and U.S. security strategy.

At the end of World War II, Denmark recognized Greenland as one of its territories. In 1953, Greenland gained constitutional rights and became a country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland was assigned self-rule in 1979, and by 2009 it became a self-governing country, still within the Kingdom of Denmark, which includes Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Denmark recognizes the government of Greenland as an equal partner and recently gave it a more significant role as the first voice for Denmark in the Arctic Council, which promotes cooperation in the Arctic.

What the US may want

The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy identifies three threats in the Western Hemisphere: migration, drugs and crimes, and China’s increasing influence.

Two of those threats are irrelevant when considering Greenland. Greenlandic people are not migrating to the U.S., and they are not drug traffickers. However, Greenland is rich in rare earth minerals, including neodymium, dysprosium, graphite, copper and lithium.

Additionally, China seeks to establish mining interests in Greenland and the Arctic as part of its Polar Silk Road initiative. China had offered to build an infrastructure for Greenland, including improving the airport, until Denmark stepped in and offered airport funding. And China has worked with Australian companies to secure mining opportunities on the island.

Those rare earth minerals appeal to the European Union, too. The EU lists some 30 raw materials that are essential for their economies. Twenty-five are in Greenland.

The Trump administration has made it clear that controlling these minerals is a national security issue, and the president wants to keep them away from China.

Figures vary, but it is estimated that over 60% of rare earth elements or minerals are currently mined in China. China also refines some 90% of rare earths. This gives China tremendous leverage in trade talks. And it results in a dangerous vulnerability for the U.S. and other nation states seeking to modernize their economies. With few suppliers of these rare earth elements, the political and economic costs of securing them are high.

Greenland has only two operating mines. One is the Tan Breez project in southern Greenland. It produces 17 metals, including terbium and neodymium, that are used in high-strength magnets used in many green technologies and in aircraft manufacturing, including for the F-35 fighter planes.

Consider for a moment that Trump is not interested in owning Greenland.

Instead, he is using this threatening position to secure promises from the Greenlandic government to make economic deals with the U.S. and not China. Thus, Trump’s threats could be less about national security and much more about eliminating competition from China and securing wealth for U.S. interests.

This form of coercive diplomacy threatens the political and economic development of not only Greenland but Europe. In recent interviews, Trump has made it clear that he does not respect international law and the sovereignty of countries. His position, I believe, undermines the international order and removes the U.S. as a responsible leader of that framework established after World War II.

Steven Lamy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Trump’s stated reasons for taking Greenland are wrong – but the tactics fit with the plan to limit China’s economic interests – https://theconversation.com/trumps-stated-reasons-for-taking-greenland-are-wrong-but-the-tactics-fit-with-the-plan-to-limit-chinas-economic-interests-273548

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Kaveh Madani, Director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health, United Nations University

The world is now using so much fresh water amid the consequences of climate change that it has entered an era of water bankruptcy, with many regions no longer able to bounce back from frequent water shortages.

About 4 billion people – nearly half the global population – live with severe water scarcity for at least one month a year, without access to sufficient water to meet all of their needs. Many more people are seeing the consequences of water deficit: dry reservoirs, sinking cities, crop failures, water rationing and more frequent wildfires and dust storms in drying regions.

Water bankruptcy signs are everywhere, from Tehran, where droughts and unsustainable water use have depleted reservoirs the Iranian capital relies on, adding fuel to political tensions, to the U.S., where water demand has outstripped the supply in the Colorado River, a crucial source of drinking water and irrigation for seven states.

Water bankruptcy is not just a metaphor for water deficit. It is a chronic condition that develops when a place uses more water than nature can reliably replace, and when the damage to the natural assets that store and filter that water, such as aquifers and wetlands, becomes hard to reverse.

A new study I led with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health concludes that the world has now gone beyond temporary water crises. Many natural water systems are no longer able to return to their historical conditions. These systems are in a state of failure – water bankruptcy.

What water bankruptcy looks like in real life

In financial bankruptcy, the first warning signs often feel manageable: late payments, borrowed money and selling things you hoped to keep. Then the spiral tightens.

Water bankruptcy has similar stages.

At first, we pull a little more groundwater during dry years. We use bigger pumps and deeper wells. We transfer water from one basin to another. We drain wetlands and straighten rivers to make space for farms and cities.

Then the hidden costs show up. Lakes shrink year after year. Wells need to go deeper. Rivers that once flowed year-round turn seasonal. Salty water creeps into aquifers near the coast. The ground itself starts to sink.

That last one, subsidence, often surprises people. But it’s a signature of water bankruptcy. When groundwater is overpumped, the underground structure, which holds water almost like a sponge, can collapse. In Mexico City, land is sinking by about 10 inches (25 centimeters) per year. Once the pores become compacted, they can’t simply be refilled.

The Global Water Bankruptcy report, published on Jan. 20, 2026, documents how widespread this is becoming. Groundwater extraction has contributed to significant land subsidence over more than 2.3 million square miles (6 million square kilometers), including urban areas where close to 2 billion people live. Jakarta, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City are among the well-known examples in Asia.

Agriculture is the world’s biggest water user, responsible for about 70% of the global freshwater withdrawals. When a region goes water bankrupt, farming becomes more difficult and more expensive. Farmers lose jobs, tensions rise and national security can be threatened.

About 3 billion people and more than half of global food production are concentrated in areas where water storage is already declining or unstable. More than 650,000 square miles (1.7 million square kilometers) of irrigated cropland are under high or very high water stress. That threatens the stability of food supplies around the world.

Droughts are also increasing in duration, frequency and intensity as global temperatures rise. Over 1.8 billion people – nearly 1 in 4 humans – dealt with drought conditions at various times from 2022 to 2023.

These numbers translate into real problems: higher food prices, hydroelectricity shortages, health risks, unemployment, migration pressures, unrest and conflicts.

How did we get here?

Every year, nature gives each region a water income, depositing rain and snow. Think of this like a checking account. This is how much water we receive each year to spend and share with nature.

When demand rises, we might borrow from our savings account. We take out more groundwater than will be replaced. We steal the share of water needed by nature and drain wetlands in the process. That can work for a while, just as debt can finance a wasteful lifestyle for a while.

Those long-term water sources are now disappearing. The world has lost more than 1.5 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers) of natural wetlands over five decades. Wetlands don’t just hold water. They also clean it, buffer floods and support plants and wildlife.

Water quality is also declining. Pollution, saltwater intrusion and soil salinization can result in water that is too dirty and too salty to use, contributing to water bankruptcy.

Climate change is exacerbating the situation by reducing precipitation in many areas of the world. Warming increases the water demand of crops and the need for electricity to pump more water. It also melts glaciers that store fresh water.

Despite these problems, nations continue to increase water withdrawals to support the expansion of cities, farmland, industries and now data centers.

Not all water basins and nations are water bankrupt, but basins are interconnected through trade, migration, climate and other key elements of nature. Water bankruptcy in one area will put more pressure on others and can increase local and international tensions.

What can be done?

Financial bankruptcy ends by transforming spending. Water bankruptcy needs the same approach:

• Stop the bleeding: The first step is admitting the balance sheet is broken. That means setting water use limits that reflect how much water is actually available, rather than just drilling deeper and shifting the burden to the future.

• Protect natural capital – not just the water: Protecting wetlands, restoring rivers, rebuilding soil health and managing groundwater recharge are not just nice-to-haves. They are essential to maintaining healthy water supplies, as is a stable climate.

• Use less, but do it fairly: Managing water demand has become unavoidable in many places, but water bankruptcy plans that cut supplies to the poor while protecting the powerful will fail. Serious approaches include social protections, support for farmers to transition to less water-intensive crops and systems, and investment in water efficiency.

• Measure what matters: Many countries still manage water with partial information. Satellite remote sensing can monitor water supplies and trends, and provide early warnings about groundwater depletion, land subsidence, wetland loss, glacier retreat and water quality decline.

• Plan for less water: The hardest part of bankruptcy is psychological. It forces us to let go of old baselines. Water bankruptcy requires redesigning cities, food systems and economies to live within new limits before those limits tighten further.

With water, as with finance, bankruptcy can be a turning point. Humanity can keep spending as if nature offers unlimited credit, or it can learn to live within its hydrological means.

Nothing to disclose.

– ref. The world is in water bankruptcy, UN scientists report – here’s what that means – https://theconversation.com/the-world-is-in-water-bankruptcy-un-scientists-report-heres-what-that-means-273213

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Laura Toran, Professor of Environmental Geology, Temple University

In early January, a giant sinkhole formed at an intersection in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of North Philadelphia after a water main break. Just two weeks earlier, the city reopened a section of the Schuylkill River Trail in Center City that had been shut down for two months due to a sinkhole. Last summer, some residents of Point Breeze in South Philly also waited two months for a sinkhole on their block to be repaired.

Laura Toran is a hydrogeologist and professor emeritus of environmental geology at Temple University. The Conversation U.S. asked her what causes sinkholes, whether Philly is particularly prone to them, and why repairs can take so long.

What are sinkholes and how do they happen?

A sinkhole is a hole that opens up in the ground due to some change in the subsurface.

There are two categories of change that create sinkholes. One type is associated with carbonate rock. This is a type of rock that can develop caves because the rock dissolves when underground water is even slightly acidic. When the bridge over one of these caves collapses, a sinkhole occurs.

The second type is associated with water supply or sewage pipes buried underground. The sediment next to the pipes can erode or wash away when there is a leak in the pipes. That leaves a gap, and if the collapse at the surface becomes big enough, it becomes a sinkhole.

What do we know about the sinkholes in West Oak Lane and on the Schuylkill River Trail?

West Oak Lane experienced two recent water main breaks. Debris from the flowing water made it hard to get to the leak.

Fixing a big leak is a complex job. You have to stop the leak, clear out the debris, get the parts for repair, do the pipe repair, then repair the road. This example also shows that repair teams need to look around to see whether other sections of pipe might be aging and repair them while they have a hole opened up, so you don’t want to rush the job.

The sinkhole on the Schuylkill River Trail late last year, which took two months to fix, was also the result of a pipe leak. The water department had to get involved in the repair, alongside the parks and recreation department. I should point out that the city has a limited budget for pipe repair. As one of the oldest cities in the country, Philadelphia has a lot of work to keep up with.

That said, I would rather try to fix a pipe leak than a carbonate rock sinkhole. With the cavities in carbonate rock, you don’t really know how big they are, and a typical solution is to fill them with concrete. Sometimes you have a much bigger cavity than your supply of concrete.

Is Philly prone to sinkholes?

The Philadelphia region has both types of sinkholes. Within the city, there isn’t carbonate rock present, but just outside the city, such as the King of Prussia area, we see carbonate rock that is subject to sinkholes.

The sinkholes that occur in Philly are where pipes leak and the surrounding soil gets washed away. Because we have the right geology for sinkholes in our region and we have an extensive water network that is aging, sinkholes are somewhat common.

Some regions have even more sinkholes than we see here, however. Florida is entirely underlain by carbonate rock, and sinkholes are quite common.

Can nearby residents know when a sinkhole is forming?

We have a map of carbonate rock in the state, but not all carbonate rock develops sinkholes. Where and when in the carbonate rock a sinkhole is likely to develop is unpredictable.

Sinkholes in Philadelphia tend to also be unpredictable because the driving factor is happening underground and out of sight. We don’t know when a pipe leak is going to occur. Sometimes there is a sagging at the surface before a bigger hole opens up. Sometimes we see the leak before the sinkhole occurs. But not all leaks or sagging ground will lead to a sinkhole, and there won’t necessarily be any warning.

That said, it is important to report leaks and sagging ground so that they can be investigated before getting worse. Report leaks to the Philadelphia Water Department by calling their emergency hotline at 215-685-6300.

If we could replace all the aging infrastructure in the city, we would have fewer sinkholes. However, that would be costly and disruptive, so it really isn’t practical. In the meantime, the city just has to fix new sinkholes as they occur.

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack.

Laura Toran receives funding from the National Science Foundation (federal), the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and the William Penn Foundation (private).

– ref. Why Philly has so many sinkholes – https://theconversation.com/why-philly-has-so-many-sinkholes-273082

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Carrie Leach, Research Assistant Professor, Wayne State University

For the past 10 years, I have worked on closing the communication gaps that keep older adults at arm’s length from research that could improve their lives.

I worked with Detroiters to bridge the digital divide by developing tools that make it easier for older adults to get online, allowing them to connect to health information and learn about benefits they’re eligible for. I have also codesigned projects with members of the community to help improve older residents’ access to services.

My overriding goal is to help older minority adults connect with research so they are not left out of the very studies meant to reduce health disparities in aging. My work has focused on older adults in Detroit, a majority minority city, to help improve health for all residents.

Despite my best intentions, I recently had an experience where my work created unintended harm for vulnerable people.

I want to share my experience as a cautionary example of how researchers can fail to understand the government benefits that low-income older adults rely on, especially when it comes to research stipends.

Detroit seniors, unplugged

Recently, I completed a project that aimed to bridge both the digital divide and the divide between Detroit residents and researchers.

This project was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, when it became clear how hard it was going to be to connect with Detroit residents. Delivering environmental education and outreach is part of my work at the Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors, also known as CURES. In response to the disconnect caused by the lockdown, our team was fortunate to get funding to deliver computers to 1,700 older Detroiters. Our community partners and advisory board members helped us distribute them.

But we soon learned many of the recipients didn’t know how to use the computers, and some couldn’t get online. At the time, Detroit had one of the lowest internet connectivity rates in the nation. Rates were as low as 40% in 2020.

Poor connectivity has been called a “super-determinant” of health. Not being able to access the internet harms individuals because they are cut off from resources that could make them healthier – such as telehealth appointments, for example. It also creates health inequities for groups of people when research lacks a diversity of perspectives.

Naturally, our next step was to develop tools to help the people who received computers get plugged in. We applied for funding, won it – and soon I was working alongside community health and aging advocates, researchers, service providers and housing administrators to develop and refine a technology tool kit.

Once the tool kit was ready, we distributed it widely. The tool kit is designed to cover the basics for older adults who are new computer users. For example, we included directions for connecting to Wi-Fi and creating an email account. We made this resource available for anyone who is interested in using it.

Intro to Research 101

Our community partners next gathered a cohort of 10 Detroiters who were 65 or older so they could learn how to get involved in virtual research. We developed an online research readiness curriculum to introduce them to the basics of how research is done.

Remembering the challenges of COVID-19, we set a goal of engaging the older adults entirely online. Our early meetings started with 45 minutes spent troubleshooting cameras and microphone connections. A few months later, we were all camera-ready in less than nine minutes.

Because I value their time, I budgeted to pay everyone involved in the project. It is difficult for people to take part in programs when they can’t afford to cover basic expenses, and payment can help relieve these financial pressures. What I didn’t realize is that these modest amounts of money could be treated by HUD as income and trigger increases in rent.

But that is exactly what happened.

The older adults involved in our project lived in HUD housing, and their rental costs are based on their income.

We paid residents $120 monthly. This stipend increased their incomes, which in turn led to increases in their rent, sometimes by the same amount as the stipend. Having higher housing costs left them in worse shape than before they joined our project. The stipends were designed to phase out after 10 months, but it was unclear when their rents would be adjusted again. By being involved, their finances became more precarious.

In my opinion, this illustrates how research involvement, even when designed to be fair and respectful, can create an unintended financial strain for people whose budgets leave no room for error.

My privilege was a blind spot.

Problem-solving through partnership

I would likely never have known about the problem if the housing administrator, who was one of my project partners, had not spoken up on behalf of the residents involved in the project. The residents did not come to me to report the issue. They went to a person they already knew and trusted to talk about the unexpected burden.

Some residents stopped accepting payments for their participation, but they still faced months of higher rental costs while we worked to get their money back.

That relief eventually came, thanks to a vigilant HUD administrator, weeks of calls and emails, and late nights spent reviewing HUD’s policies.

In the end, HUD emailed to say it had agreed to exempt the stipends from the residents’ income because we argued that the payments were “temporary, sporadic and nonrecurring.” In response, the HUD site administrator immediately made adjustments, and the overpayments were returned to the residents.

Everyone involved was hugely relieved.

Learning from my mistake

And that may have been the end of the story if one of my community partners, Zachary Rowe, hadn’t encouraged me to write about what happened so that others could learn from our experience.

In my view, this cautionary tale reveals a critical gap in how researchers engage and support people who are underrepresented in studies, including those who rely on housing assistance and other safety net programs. Without attention to these details, efforts to broaden participation in studies can unintentionally exclude or burden the very people researchers are working to include. Experiences like this reinforce that institutions must adapt their policies so paying people for their time never jeopardizes their basic needs.

Researchers, university research review boards and community partners could all benefit from plain‑language guidance about how earnings interact with safety net programs, benefits and income rules. Projects should start with collaborative efforts to anticipate the real-world implications of engagement.

This kind of persistent troubleshooting supports ethical practices and helps build the kind of trust that makes long‑term research partnerships possible.

I view the additional effort and advocacy required to take these precautions as part of the work of shaping who gets represented in research at all. If engaging people with complex lives and constrained resources were easy, our study samples would already be diversified.

Sharing these difficult experiences can be uncomfortable, but it can also help researchers, institutions and partners do better for those who might otherwise be harmed along the way.

Carrie Leach receives funding from NIH.

– ref. Some hard-earned lessons from Detroit on how to protect the safety net for community partners in research – https://theconversation.com/some-hard-earned-lessons-from-detroit-on-how-to-protect-the-safety-net-for-community-partners-in-research-271361

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jenni Shearston, Assistant Professor of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder

I grew up in rural Colorado, deep in the mountains, and I can still remember the first time I visited Denver in the early 2000s. The city sits on the plain, skyscrapers rising and buildings extending far into the distance. Except, as we drove out of the mountains, I could barely see the city – the entire plain was covered in a brown, hazy cloud.

That brown, hazy cloud was mostly made of ozone, a lung-irritating gas that causes decreases in lung function, inflammation, respiratory symptoms like coughing, and can trigger asthma attacks.

Denver still has air pollution problems, due in part to its geography, which creates temperature inversions that can hold pollution near the ground. But since 1990, ozone has decreased 18% across the U.S., reducing the smog that choked many cities in the 1960s and 1970s. The concentration of tiny dustlike particles of air pollution called PM2.5 has also decreased, by 37% since 2000.

These decreases occurred largely because of one of the most successful public health policies ever implemented by the United States: the Clean Air Act, first passed in 1970. The Clean Air Act regulates air pollution emissions and authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to set air quality standards for the nation.

For years, when the Environmental Protection Agency assessed the economic impact of new regulations, it weighed both the health costs for Americans and the compliance costs for businesses. The Trump administration is now planning to drop half of that calculation – the monetary health benefits of reducing both ozone and PM2.5 – when weighing the economic impact of regulating sources of air pollution.

I am an environmental epidemiologist, and one of the things I study is people’s exposure to air pollution and how it affects health. Measuring the impact of air quality policies – including quantifying how much money is saved in health care costs when people are exposed to less air pollution – is important because it helps policymakers determine if the benefits of a regulation are worth the costs.

What air pollution does to your body

Breathing in air pollution like ozone and PM2.5 harms nearly every major system in the human body.

It is particularly hard on the cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological systems. Numerous studies have found that PM2.5 exposure is associated with increased death from cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart disease. Even short-term exposure to either PM2.5 or ozone can increase hospitalizations for heart attacks and strokes.

In the respiratory system, PM2.5 exposure is associated with a 10% increased risk for respiratory diseases and symptoms such as wheezing and bronchitis in children. More recent evidence suggests that PM2.5 exposure can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders. In addition, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has designated PM2.5 as a carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent.

Reducing air pollution has been proven to save lives, reduce health care costs and improve quality of life.

For example, a study led by scientists at the EPA estimated that a 39% nationwide decrease in airborne PM2.5 from 1990 to 2010 corresponded to a 54% drop in deaths from ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and stroke.

In the same period, the study found that a 9% decline in ozone corresponded to a 13% drop in deaths from chronic respiratory disease. All of these illnesses are costly for the patients and the public, both in the treatment costs that raise insurance prices and the economic losses when people are too ill to work.

Yet another study found that nationally, an increase of 1 microgram per square meter in weekly PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 0.82% increase in asthma inhaler use. The authors calculated that decreasing PM2.5 by that amount would mean US$350 million in annual economic benefits.

Especially for people with lung diseases like asthma or sarcoidosis, increased PM2.5 concentrations can reduce quality of life by worsening lung function.

Uncertainty doesn’t mean ignore it

The process of calculating precisely how much money is saved by a policy has uncertainty. That was a reason the Trump administration stated for not including health costs in its cost-benefit analyses in 2026 for a plan to change air pollution standards for power plant combustion turbines.

Uncertainty is something we all deal with on a daily basis. Think of the weather. Forecasts have varying degrees of accuracy. The high temperature might not get quite as high as the prediction, or might be a bit hotter. That is uncertainty.

The EPA wrote in a notice dated Jan. 9, 2026, that its historical practice of providing estimates of the monetized impact of reducing pollution leads the public to believe that the EPA has a clearer understanding of these monetary benefits than it actually does.

Therefore, the EPA wrote, the agency will stop estimating monetary benefits from reducing pollution until it is “confident enough in the modeling to properly monetize those impacts.”

This is like ignoring weather forecasts because they might not be perfect. Even though there is uncertainty, the estimate is still useful.

Estimates of the monetary costs and benefits of regulating pollution sources are used to understand if the regulation is worth its cost. Without considering the health costs and benefits, it may be easier for infrastructure that emits high levels of air pollution to be built and operated.

What the evidence shows

Several studies have shown the impact of pollution sources like power plants on health.

For example, the retirement of coal and oil power plants has been connected with a reduction in preterm birth to mothers living near the power plants. Scientists studied 57,000 births in California and found the percentage of babies born preterm to mothers living within 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) of a coal- or oil-fueled power plant fell from 7% to 5.1% after the power plant was retired.

Another study in the Louisville, Kentucky, area found that four coal-fired power plants either retiring or installing pollution-reduction technologies such as flue-gas desulfurization systems coincided with a drop in hospitalizations and emergency department visits for asthma and reduced asthma-medication use.

Reducing preterm birth, hospitalizations, emergency department visits and medication use saves money by preventing expensive health care for treatment, hospital stays and medications. For example, researchers estimated that for children born in 2016, the lifetime cost of preterm birth, including medical and delivery care, special education interventions and lost productivity due to disability in adulthood, was in excess of $25.2 billion.

Circling back to Denver: The region is a fast-growing data center hub, and utilities are expecting power demand to skyrocket over the next 15 years. That means more power plants will be needed, and with the EPA’s changes, they may be held to lower pollution standards.

Jenni Shearston has received funding from the National Institutes of Health.

– ref. What air pollution does to the human body – https://theconversation.com/what-air-pollution-does-to-the-human-body-273456

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross

Pope Leo XIV closed the door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6, 2026, just days into the new year. The act formally brought the Vatican’s Holy Year 2025 – designated as “Pilgrims of Hope” – to an end.

In 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic ended, Pope Francis announced his intention to proclaim a Jubilee year, urging the faithful to look to the future “with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.” That is why, as Francis explained, he chose the motto of the Jubilee: “Pilgrims of Hope.”

Ironically, 2025 was a turbulent year the world over. After so much military aggression in Ukraine, rampant starvation in Gaza and increasing violence of all kinds within the United States, people in many parts of the world were left much more despairing than hopeful for 2026.

Religions typically try to offer hope in the face of despair. As a scholar of Catholicism, I know that even amid violent persecutions, devastating wars and staggering death tolls from epidemics, Christians have repeatedly turned to their holy texts for hope.

So what is the meaning of hope in the Christian tradition?

Western antiquity

Christianity was shaped by its roots in Judaism, but also its rejection of Greco-Roman religious culture, especially its polytheism.

Many ancient Greek authors wrote about a divine spirit of hope – Elpis. As early as the late eighth century B.C.E., the poet Hesiod composed a mythic poem, “Works and Days,” about Pandora and her box of woes. The god Zeus warned that Pandora was not to open the box, given to her as a gift. But in the end, she did – and released all of the entrapped evils to trouble the world. But Elpis – that is, Hope – had also been placed in the box and was kept inside when Pandora closed the lid quickly. The moral of the story is that hope still remains with humanity.

In ancient Rome, hope was venerated as a minor goddess, Spes, but usually on a communal, national level. Politically, Spes represented the collective hope for the Roman Republic or support for the semi-divine emperors of the later empire; temples were erected in her honor, and her image could be found on coins.

Hebrew Scriptures

But for monotheistic Judaism, hope was not an external divine spirit or goddess to be invoked in times of personal or communal need.

In the ancient Near East, the authors of books of the Hebrew Bible spoke frequently about hope. Often expressed with the word “tikvah,” hope is presented in the Bible as a human reaction to God’s promises, “an inner attitude of inner expectation”: a confident trust based on God’s past works.

Early in the Book of Job, the reader meets Job, a righteous man whose faith is tested through the sudden loss of his children, wealth and health. His friend Eliphaz urges him not to give up hope in the midst of Job’s terrible sufferings. He asks: “Is your fear of God not your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?” Job is already living a life of faith and obedience; his reaction should not be to collapse in despair, but to carry on in hope, trusting in God’s wisdom and mercy.

The Psalms were composed as poems or hymns used in worship. In Psalm 62, the psalmist reminds himself and all God’s people of this hope: “My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my hope is from Him. … Trust in Him at all times, you people.”

The prophets were understood to have been sent by God to chastise the people of Israel for falling into idolatry and other evils and to urge repentance. And some of them stress hope in God as the source for strength in rejecting these worldly temptations and turning back to following the teachings of the Scriptures. The prophet Jeremiah, for example, addresses God as “the hope of Israel” as they repent.

Christian Scriptures

The New Testament, compiled in the first century C.E. contains frequent references to the Old Testament as interpreted through the lens of Jesus’ teaching.

The Gospels rarely use the word hope itself, but imply it obliquely in connection with other elements of faith, such as belief and trust. The Epistles, or letters, by early Christian apostles and their followers, contain frequent references to hope.

For example, in several Epistles, the apostle Paul speaks often about the Christian hope in God through Jesus Christ. In the “Letter to the Romans,” Paul states that, even among difficulties, “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” He praises the Christians in Thessalonika for “your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.”

But in his first “Letter to the Corinthians,” Paul addresses different kinds of spiritual gifts – some very striking, such as speaking in tongues or healing others. But he then writes a section specifically exploring the most important gift of all, love – in Greek, “agape” – and refers to its relationship with both faith and hope. He closes with a frequently quoted text about what he described as the three greatest Christian virtues: faith, hope and love.

Contemporary hope

Throughout the next centuries, Christian theologians and popes reflected on the nature of hope – either in itself, or within the framework of all three of these virtues.

And so, on Dec. 24, 2025, Francis opened the door of St. Peter’s Basilica to declare the beginning of the Catholic Church’s celebration of the Holy Year, with hope as the special theme.

He would not live to close it. But Leo XIV did, with the following words at the final Jubilee Mass:

“Has the Jubilee taught us to flee from (the) type of efficiency that reduces everything to a product and human beings to consumers? After this year, will we be better able to recognize a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbor in the foreigner, and fellow travelers in those who are different?”

From his very first speech after being elected pope, Leo called Christians to reach out to others, build bridges, engage in dialogue and be present to one another.

Perhaps this is what continuing to hope means for the world in 2026.

Joanne M. Pierce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What ‘hope’ has represented in Christian history – and what it might mean now – https://theconversation.com/what-hope-has-represented-in-christian-history-and-what-it-might-mean-now-273097