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A decade ago, when Claire Burgi moved to New York City, she decided to cut meat out of her diet. The 33-year-old actor and audiobook narrator, who lives in Queens, grew up in California, where shed seen the effects of climate change firsthand. She knew that meat consumption was a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and that vegetarianism was a way to help conserve resources and reduce pollution. When I was young, it rained a lot, she says. Now, it rains much less. All the fires are astoundingly horrific. The December 2017 Thomas wildfire burned more than 280,000 acres in and around Burgis hometown of Ventura, just north of Los Angeles. I just didnt want to be contributing to anything that was causing that, Burgi says. She recently made another major decision to reduce her eco-footprint: not to use generative AI. Shes been shocked, she says, by research showing how much electricity that the underlying technology generative AI tools like ChatGPT use, and how much this is raising carbon emissions. One paper published in 2023 predicted that AI-related infrastructure would soon consume six times more water than is used in Denmark yearly. Another piece of research from 2024 showed that a request made through ChatGPT consumes 10 times the electricity of a Google search. They make me think of Frankenstein, Burgi says of AI models. There have been times in history, she says, when humans have acted without any idea of what the consequences would be, because it was convenient for us in that moment. Right now, she adds, thats whats happening with AI. In general, women have been slower to adopt AI use than men. This gender gap has been well documented over the last few years. According to Harvard Business School associate professor Rembrand Koningwho synthesized data from 18 studies covering more than 140,000 individuals across the worldwomen are about 20% less likely than men to directly engage with this new technology. Whats less clearly established is the precise reason why. But when it comes to environmentally motivated reasons, Burgi isnt alone. “Environmental angst” The reasons for this gender gap vary. Some studies indicate that women are less likely to trust that gen AI providers will keep their data secure. Other research shows that women are more fearful of a loss of control that comes with these technologieswhich is, for example, reflected in their more muted enthusiasm for driverless cars. Studies have also shown that women are more likely to avoid AI because of fears that it could steal their job, and still other studies have found that women are more concerned than men about the ethical implications of AI use. But a growing body of research also indicates that a sizable chunk of the gap might be attributable to the type of environmental angst that people like Burgi feel. Earlier this month, academics at the University of Oxford published a paper showing that the reasons for the adoption gap are manifold, but that environmental concerns certainly play a significant part. The research, titled Women Worry, Men Adopt: How Gendered Perceptions Shape the Use of Generative AI, draws on survey responses from 8,000 individuals in 2023 and 2024 across the U.K. It established that 14.7% of women and 20% of men reported using gen AI tools frequentlyat least once a weekin a personal context. This corresponds to a gap of just over 5 percentage points. But the gap widens significantly in subsets of respondents who admit to being concerned about environmental and mental health risks. Among those who say they are worried about the climate, the gender gap is 9.3 percentage points; for those concerned about the mental health impact of these new technologies, it widens to 16.8 percentage points. Among older users of artificial intelligence, the gender gap for concerns about AIs climate effect is particularly wide: almost 18 percentage points. These findings echo previous research showing that women are more likely to display eco-anxiety than mena phrase thats been coined to refer to the mental health distress caused by climate change, ranging from concerns about the impact of extreme weather to the future of biodiversity. And the academics at Oxford write that their findings align with evidence of greater social compassion and moral sensitivity among women. Counterintuitive findings Fabian Stephany, a departmental research lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute and one of the authors of the study, says that one of the most interesting things his research found was that some common preconceptions about AI usage werent corroborated. Theres a widely held assumption, for example, that greater tech literacy translates into higher use and adoption. But he found that this isnt always the case. In fact, in some cases, greater literacy and knowledge about AI actually drove down use. Also of note, the research found that among those who said they were concerned about AIs impact on the environment and on mental health, womens concerns were more likely to translate into action than mens concerns. In other words: Women were more likely to stop using AI because of the way they felt about it. Asked why that might be, Stephany said he could only speculate. Research done by academics in Iran in 2022, though, might provide an answer: It shows that women generally lean toward a more collectivist mindsetreflected in concerns for society, for examplewhile men tend to lean toward a more individualist one. Women are “the canary in the coal mine” Stephany says that the last thing he wants people to take away from this research is that women need to change or be fixed in some way. Their concerns are real, he says. Women are like the canary in the coal mine. And we should listen to these concerns, he adds. The important thing isnt to tell women to be more optimisticits to address the harms. And, he says, these harms can be addressed. Biases can be reduced, carbon footprints can be lowered, smaller models can be run locally, Stephani says. We dont have to wait for future breakthroughs. We can reduce harms now. His research suggests that theres a sizable market of people with strong convictions about AI consumption, he says. A more green, sustainable, inclusive gen AI model would have a clear target market.” And there are already platforms available that seem to be tapping into this market that Stephany mentions. GreenPT, for example, bills itself as a platform that runs on renewable energy and is hosted in Europe for strict data protection. Viro, another platform, funds clean energy projects and markets itself as a climate-neutral alternative to less environmentally conscious options. Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which operates ChatGPT, tried to allay fears that his technology might be accelerating climate change by framing it as a tool to enhance sustainability. If we have to spend even 1% of the worlds electricity training powerful AI, and that AI helps us figure out how to get to non-carbon-based energy or to do carbon capture better, that would be a massive win, he said. As for Burgi, she would want to see a lot of changes before even entertaining the idea of intentionally incorporating AI use into her daily life. She doesnt think that anything could meaningfully allay her ethical concerns about AI. Especially as an artist, I just don’t feel morally aligned with using AI, she says. In terms of her environmental concerns, shes similarly skeptical. If there was more transparency, and if it seemed like more thought and care was being put into these thingsif it wasnt just about greed and capitalismthen I might consider it from an environmental concern, she says. But right now? I dont really see any of that happening.
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E-Commerce
The U.S.’s population growth is slowing as immigration has declined amid President Donald Trump’s deportation push and stricter border policies. According to new Census Bureau data, the drop-off is the biggest since the COVID-19 pandemic. From July 2024 to July 2025, the population of the United States grew by 1.8 million people (about 0.5%). This was mostly driven by immigration: During that period, the U.S. added 1.3 million immigrants. This is a steep decline from the previous year, in which 2.7 million immigrants arrived. The Census Bureau predicts that by July of this year, the number of immigrants could drop even more, to just 321,000. Meanwhile, the number of deportations, including self-deportations, totaled nearly 3 million as of January 20, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, immigration in the U.S. had been growing for over 50 years until new policies enacted by the Biden administrationsuch as tightened border security measures and restricting asylum for those crossing between ports of entrytook effect in 2024. “The big takeaway is, wow, the Trump administration, and even the end of the Biden administration, made a big difference,” Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told CBS News. “It sure looks like we’re seeing a fundamental change that reflects policy.” Aside from a decline in immigration, population growth has already been slowing for decades due to declining birth rates in the U.S. Impacts across the labor force will be undeniable, experts say. Juan Carlos Rivera, an immigration attorney based in Miami, has seen the effects of the U.S.’s new policies firsthand, given the uptick in deportations. Rivera says most of the individuals in the deportation cases hes seen were working and contributing to the country’s economy. Needless to say, deporting employees will come with hefty consequences, according to Rivera. “When fewer workers are available, businesses face higher labor costs, reduced productivity, and slower expansion,” he says. “That pressure shows up in higher prices for consumers and weaker overall economic growth.” Rivera also believes that the current immigration enforcement tactics will impact the nation’s ability to stay competitive with the rest of the world. “Other countries are actively competing for workers and talent as their populations age. If the United States does not maintain a legal and reliable immigration system that supports workers across skill levels, it risks losing ground in innovation, supply chain stability, and long-term economic leadership,” Rivera explains. According to a new report from Sedgwick, an HR administration company, immigration enforcement is already creating some of those broader economic issues. Per the 2026 report: “Immigration-related labor disruptions affect three-quarters of organizations to varying degrees,” which it calls “a chronic operational drag rather than an acute crisis.” Dave Arick, managing director of global risk management at Sedgwick, tells Fast Company that certain industrieslike healthcare, technology, and hospitality, which “rely more heavily upon scientific and technical qualifications for key roles”are already navigating “a highly competitive environment for attracting and retaining people with specific expertise and experience, especially when coupled with high market growth.” Therefore, Arick says that new immigration changes, such as those that “restrict immigrant higher education and employment,” will further “shrink the available talent pool”which will, in turn, “drive up costs to acquire the highest-qualified available candidates.”
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E-Commerce
Following last week’s anti-ICE economic blackout in Minnesota and national Free America Walkout, organizers are once again urging Americans to stop working, attending school, and spending money to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown surging across the country. The fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alexi Pretti by federal officers only increased the public outcry against the Trump administrations hardline immigration and border policies and aggressive tactics used by swarms of masked agents. Here’s what to know. What is National Shutdown Day? National Shutdown Day on January 30 is a call to striketo disrupt business as usualas a way for Americans to register their mounting anger at the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis and other cities nationwide. (Some 69% of Americans say President Trump is trying to exert more power than previous presidents, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center.) With the tagline No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE, the nationalshutdown.org website reads, The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole countryto stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN. The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents. . . . It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!” Organizers are also calling on Congress to cut funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, when it votes on the current funding package ahead of a possible federal government shutdown. Walkouts, events, vigils, and protests are set to take place in all 50 states, including in New York City, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphiafrom state capitals (Honolulu) to federal buildings and courthouses (Tucson, Arizona, and Cincinnati), universities (Stanford, Santa Clara University, the University of Washington, Northeastern University), and even some high schools (in Miami). On Friday, a number of student groups at the University of Minnesotaincluding the Somali Student Association, Black Student Union, and Graduate Labor Unionwill lead a walkout on campus. Students are always at the heart of movements for justice across the world, they said in a statement. Students are encouraged to participate in [the] protests after walking out.” Businesses nationwide to close for general strike Following Minnesota’s recent statewide strike, local businesses in the Twin Cities and across the nation are planning to close on Friday. They include 50 businesses and shops in Portland, Maine; several restaurants in Denver; bookstores, coffeeshops, and retailers in Rochester, New York; businesses in Omaha, Nebraska; a Las Vegas pizza shop; and numerous Los Angeles restaurants, to name just a few, according to local news reports. It has been increasingly difficult to watch what is unfolding in our country, the owners of Denver restaurant Sp Sa told television station KDVR. We have felt so helpless and alone, and its abundantly clear that no one will come to save us, so it is our civic duty to unite as a community in support of the most vulnerable. Grassroots organizers 50501 are calling for additional “ICE Out of Everywhere protests on Saturday, January 31, at ICE detention centers and offices; at airports to target airlines that are transporting ICE detainees, including Global Crossing Airlines and World Atlantic Airlines; and at some Congressional offices, according to The Guardian. Who is organizing the National Shutdown? National Shutdown Day, like many of the previous national walkouts and protests over the past year, lists a broad coalition of grassroots partners, including: 50501, local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, Defend Immigrant Families Campaign, Council on American-Islamic Relations, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, student groups, labor unions, and immigrant rights organizations. In addition, the strike has garnered the attention of a number of Hollywood celebrities, including Pedro Pascal, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Edward Norton. “We cannot act like this is not happening,” Norton, a longtime political activist, said at a recent Sundance Film Festival panel discussion. What theyre doing in Minnesota with the strike needs to expand. I think we should be talking about a national, general economic strike until this is over. New York University professor Scott Galloway has also called for a prolonged general economic strike.
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E-Commerce
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