Breaking Waves: Ocean News

They are choosing to abstain from using artificial intelligence for environmental, ethical and personal reasons. Maybe they have a point I tried to write a letter recently but my hand didn’t quite cooperate: the result was a maniacal scrawl. I rarely put literal pen to paper any more and it seems my overreliance on a keyboard means I may have lost the ability to write legible cursive. I’m not alone: handwriting is disappearing. It’s possible my kid will never be taught joined-up writing at school. While typing is more efficient, studies suggest typing notes rather than writing may have a negative impact on the brain’s ability to learn. A keyboard feels like stone age technology now; as AI becomes more embedded in our lives, what impact will that have on our brains? We’re still figuring that out. The people who make money from the tech keep telling us we need it, or we’ll fall behind. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, recently said if you don’t wear AI-powered smart glasses, you will find yourself at a “significant cognitive disadvantage” in the near future. However, a recent study suggests an overreliance on ChatGPT could harm critical thinking abilities. And then, of course, there’s all the other collateral damage of AI – from its massive environmental impact to its exploitation of underpaid creatives’ labour. Continue reading...

ASA says online ads from Aira and EDF Energy omitted key facts about eligibility for government grants Two more “misleading” adverts promoting heat pumps have been banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog. A week after the Advertising Standards Authority banned an Octopus Energy ad that claimed consumers could have a heat pump installed for as little as £500, it has taken action against adverts from the home heating supplier Aira and from EDF Energy. Continue reading...

More than 100 million ‘novel entity’ chemicals are in circulation, with health impact not widely recognised Chemical pollution is “a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change” but decades behind global heating in terms of public awareness and action, a report has warned. The industrial economy has created more than 100 million “novel entities”, or chemicals not found in nature, with somewhere between 40,000 and 350,000 in commercial use and production, the report says. But the environmental and human health effects of this widespread contamination of the biosphere are not widely appreciated, in spite of a growing body of evidence linking chemical toxicity with effects ranging from ADHD to infertility to cancer. Continue reading...

Australia’s political landscape is barely recognisable from four years ago. Will Labor abandon its risk-averse past and take an aggressive stance on emissions? Want to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter here In 2021, the Labor party was in a bit of a climate crouch. It needed policies that could be presented at the 2022 election as credible steps towards addressing the century’s greatest social and economic challenge after nine years of the Coalition doing next-to-nothing, or less. It also felt it needed to not leave itself exposed to another round of damaging climate scare campaigns from its opponents in the Morrison government, industry lobby groups and the media, particularly at News Corp. It had experienced too many of those, from claims that a lamb roast would cost more than $100 and Whyalla would be wiped from the map, to baseless attacks in 2019 that its policies would cost an economy wrecking $60bn and, ludicrously, stop people enjoying weekends. Continue reading...