Blurs

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world, but behind the promises of technological progress lies a rapidly expanding demand for land, electricity and water.  Across Britain, communities are beginning to question whether the price of the AI revolution is being paid by the wrong people. A technological revolution with a physical footprint Artificial intelligence increasingly appears to exist everywhere and nowhere. It writes articles, generates images, analyses medical information, assists scientific research and influences decisions across business, government and everyday life.  Much of this activity takes place behind screens, creating the impression that the digital revolution has relatively little physical presence. But AI has a substantial physical footprint. Behind every sophisticated AI model sits an enormous network of computer processors, storage equipment, cooling systems, electricity infrastructure and buildings.  These facilities are known as data cent...

Between 2016 and 2025, some of Britain's familiar fish stocks suffered extraordinary declines. Now scientists are recommending zero catches for several stocks — while fishing continues under negotiated quotas. For generations, cod, haddock and whiting have been staples of Britain's fishing industry and dinner tables. But beneath the surface, something remarkable has happened. An analysis of International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) stock-assessment data by the Blue Marine Foundation found that the estimated weight of mature Celtic Sea cod capable of reproducing fell by 98% between 2016 and 2025. Other British stocks have also suffered severe declines. Irish Sea haddock fell by approximately 79%, while whiting declined by around 73% in the stocks examined by the analysis. And the scientific warnings are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. ICES has now recommended zero catches for Celtic Sea cod for 2027, while its advice also calls for zero catches of Ce...

For thousands of years, fields across Britain have been hiding the remains of settlements, burial monuments, ancient boundaries and ceremonial landscapes. Most of the time, they are almost impossible to see. Then the weather changes. During prolonged periods of hot, dry weather, crops growing above buried archaeology can behave differently from plants growing over undisturbed ground. What appears to be an ordinary field from ground level can suddenly develop strange lines, circles, rectangles and geometric patterns when viewed from the air. In 2018, an exceptionally dry summer produced some of the clearest archaeological cropmarks seen in years. Historic England's aerial archaeologists took to the skies — and discovered that parts of England's prehistoric landscape were far richer than previously realised. When the landscape gives itself away The principle behind these discoveries is surprisingly simple. Archaeological remains buried beneath a field can alter the soil above the...