Brief Author Note

I had a Eureka moment this week! 🌟 

Over the past year, I’ve been pivoting into all things AI and environment through a bunch of projects including this newsletter, the AI & Environment Resource Hub, and webinars + panels.

I had a singular question: How on earth do I monetize all of this one day? 💸 

The answer came after a bunch of consulting calls: trainings! It was staring in front of me the entire time with folks coming to me to give webinars or presentations on different topics in the whole slew of AI and the environment.

Still workshopping this over time with offers and what this means for clients. However, if you have a need for that sort of thing for your organization, deffo do keep me in mind.

Cya later, alligator! 🐊 

Nate

Quick Links!

• Podcast Episodes

• Scientific Papers

• Policy Documents

• Multimedia

• Organizations

• Tools

• Fellowships Corner

• Submit Resources

Software Architecture for Sustainability (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): Guest host Anne Currie speaks with Karthik Vaidhyanathan, Assistant Professor at IIIT Hyderabad, about integrating sustainability into AI development. They explore how digital growth can align with renewable energy goals and how AI systems can be designed to be energy-efficient rather than energy-intensive. Karthik shares insights from his research on sustainable AI and MLOps, emphasizing dynamic model retraining and cross-sector collaboration to make sustainability a core principle in software engineering.

How Do We Know If We Are In An AI Bubble? (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, joins Open Circuit to unpack the difference between a boom and a bubble in the AI economy. He discusses his recent analysis on bubble dynamics and presents a dashboard for monitoring the health and sustainability of AI’s rapid growth.

Farmer’s AI Almanac (AI & Extreme Weather): Host Amy Harder investigates how AI is revolutionizing weather prediction in regions most vulnerable to climate shocks. The episode explores how improved data and machine learning tools can close the climate survival gap, providing life-saving forecasts to communities with limited resources.

Sustainably Advancing Health AI: A Decision Framework to Mitigate the Energy, Emissions, and Cost of AI Implementation (AI & Workforce Development): Ramachandran et al. introduce the Sustainably Advancing Health AI (SAHAI) framework, a model that helps U.S. health systems align AI adoption, particularly energy and water-intensive generative AI tools, with sustainability goals. Using an AI patient-messaging case study, the paper quantifies emissions impacts and offers strategies for implementing health AI that balance innovation, cost, and environmental responsibility.

LLMs Can Get “Brain Rot” (AI & Data Centers/Hardware/Models):
Xing et al. empirically test the LLM Brain Rot Hypothesis, showing that continual exposure to low-quality web text (such as highly engaged Twitter/X data) leads to lasting cognitive decline in large language models. The study finds notable drops in reasoning, long-context understanding, and safety driven by “thought-skipping” behaviors and concludes that poor data quality can permanently degrade model cognition, reframing dataset curation as a training-time safety concern.

An Operational Deep Learning System for Satellite-Based High-Resolution Global Nowcasting (AI & Geospatial Analysis):
Agrawal et al. present Global MetNet, a machine learning model that predicts rainfall up to 12 hours ahead using satellite and global weather data instead of radar. Operating at a 5 km spatial and 15-minute temporal resolution, Global MetNet outperforms conventional weather prediction models, especially in the Global South, providing rapid, equitable, and real-time forecasts already deployed to millions via Google Search.

Jobs of Tomorrow: Technology and the Future of the World’s Largest Workforces (AI & Economic Transformation): Published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), this report explores how artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technologies are transforming the global labor market. It highlights both opportunities for productivity and growth, and the urgent need for large-scale reskilling and workforce adaptation to ensure inclusive economic transitions across the world’s largest economies.

Sustainable AI Practices (AI & Sustainability): Released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this report outlines actionable principles for integrating sustainability into AI development and deployment. It emphasizes responsible energy use, transparent governance, and equitable access to AI benefits positioning sustainability as a cornerstone of ethical and future-proof AI systems.

Echo River Capital: Data Center Innovation Report (AI & Infrastructure): This Echo River Capital report examines emerging trends in sustainable data center design, investment, and operation. It reviews innovations in energy efficiency, liquid cooling, and grid integration, highlighting how the next generation of AI infrastructure can balance rapid computational growth with environmental responsibility.

AI Is Reshaping America’s Power Grid: The Profit Play You’re Missing (AI & Energy): In this episode of Altimetry Authority, analysts explore how AI-driven data center expansion is fueling a surge in U.S. electricity demand, Buffalo’s energy costs have risen nearly 200% in five years. The discussion examines “pre-grid” power strategies, gas turbines, and the large-scale infrastructure build-out reshaping the U.S. energy market, arguing that Wall Street may be underestimating the opportunity for natural gas producers.

AI & Weather Prediction – UK Weather – Met Office Explains (AI & Multiple Applications): The UK Met Office breaks down how artificial intelligence could revolutionize weather forecasting by enhancing speed, accuracy, and utility. The video highlights emerging AI models that complement traditional physics-based systems, offering a glimpse into the future of meteorology powered by machine learning.

Beyond the Forecast – How AI Is Changing Weather Forecasting (AI & Multiple Applications): Host Lacey Swope talks with Dr. Amy McGovern from the University of Oklahoma about how AI is transforming weather prediction. The conversation delves into new AI models capable of pinpointing severe weather events like tornadoes, offering more precise and life-saving forecasts that push the boundaries of traditional meteorology.

Contech Poland (AI & Infrastructure): Based in Europe, Contech Poland develops AI-driven solutions to address challenges across construction sites both domestically and internationally. Their work focuses on streamlining processes, digitalizing project information flows, enhancing transparency, and improving collaboration to make the construction sector more efficient and sustainable.

Recycllux (AI & Ocean Science): Recycllux is a European deep-tech platform using AI and data analytics to combat marine plastic pollution. By creating transparent, verified systems for tracking cleanups, the company transforms ocean waste into an opportunity helping businesses fund measurable, regulation-aligned environmental impact.

Släppa (AI & Circular Economy): Släppa tackles single-use plastic waste and carbon emissions from household cleaning products by producing dissolvable tablets that turn into cleaning agents when mixed with tap water. This innovation drastically reduces plastic production, cuts transport-related emissions by twentyfold, and enables consumers to make sustainable choices in everyday life.

Decoding Climate Displacement (AI & Geospatial Analysis): This interactive ArcGIS StoryMap uses satellite data combined with community resilience indicators to guide decision-making before, during, and after climate shocks. It showcases how geospatial intelligence and AI can help anticipate displacement, strengthen preparedness, and support recovery planning. (Free access)

Earth Copilot (AI & Geospatial Analysis): Developed by Microsoft, Earth Copilot is an AI-powered geospatial application that lets users explore and visualize Earth science data using natural language. It simplifies complex data analysis, helping scientists, educators, and policymakers interact intuitively with planetary datasets. (Free access)

Green Software Agent Researcher (AI & Sustainability): Created by the Green Software Foundation, this AI-driven tool generates structured sustainability reports that analyze energy use, emissions trade-offs, and performance impacts. It helps developers evaluate the environmental footprint of software systems through standardized green software principles. (Free access)

Data Science Institute, University of Chicago Postdoctoral Scholars Program (USA / Global early-career researchers with PhDs):
Hosted by the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute (DSI), this postdoctoral scholar program invites applicants holding or near completion of a PhD to pursue original research in data science and AI across domains such as AI for Climate, Data & Democracy, Data Ecology, and Novel Intelligence. The program offers a competitive salary, research support, mentorship, and professional development in a vibrant interdisciplinary environment. Application review begins November 15, 2025, and continues until positions fill.

IEEE Humanitarian Technologies “GenAI for Good” Challenge (Global / Technologists & innovators using generative AI for impact):
This global challenge, powered by IEEE HT and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), invites teams to develop generative AI solutions focused on health, agriculture, or climate resilience aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Winning teams may receive up to US $25,000 in funding and benefit from global networks and deployment partnerships. The deadline for applications is December 1, 2025.

Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) (Global / Mid-career social-change professionals): This fully-funded fellowship at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) supports leaders addressing deep-rooted inequalities through a year of academic study (Residential) or a practice-based track (Non-Residential). Applicants should bring significant experience (≈7+ years) in activism, policy, research or practice around social and economic equity. For the 2026-27 cohort, applications open in October 2025 and close on January 16, 2026.

If you have resources that you wish to submit to the AI & Environment Resource Hub, fill out the Google Form! Thank you for suggesting resources to add to the Resource Hub. 🙃 

That’s it for this week.

Thanks for reading the 23rd issue of The Climate Code! It means a lot to me and we have more coming in the future, so definitely stick around! 💚 

Nate

P.S.

New here? Check out the AI & Environment Resource Hub if you have no idea what it is. 😆