In the age of artificial intelligence, which voice of authority carries more weight? As AI reshapes how people receive information, we're all asking How do you evaluate a source that cannot show its work? How do you trust a voice that has no face, no history, no skin in the game? How do you resist a system that sounds like it knows everything? How do you tell true good news from sophisticated manipulation?After Pope Leo XIV released "Magnifica humanitias" (magnificent humanity), about "safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence," a priest suggested that the Church is discovering a new mission: teaching people what deserves to be believed.
After my last substack about the Strait of Hormuz's closure causing empty shelves, I realized how many of my "necessities" depend on international supply chains: salt, cooking oil, PFAs-free dental floss, anything packaged in plastic"to name a few. Then Nate Hagens posted a conversation with Michael Every: the U.S. can't back down: the Strait of Hormuz closure is messier than you think. Before we buy anything, Every suggests we think about its supply chain. What's involved in getting an apple to your grocery store in June (months before autumn apple season)? What elements, chemicals, smelting, water and shipping go into a mobile phone-- or a solar PV system or a generator? How do Palestinian-Israeli relations, the price of gas and the Strait of Hormuz's closure relate? Michael Every also suggests going local as much as possible. Get to know neighbors. Get to know nearby farmers. What can you offer for trade?
Even if you don't like Elon Musk or believe in a high value of SpaceX, beware: if you have a 401(k), the stock is likely to end up in your pension fund.
WHETHER OR NOT A CORPORATION HAS PROPOSED BUILDING A DATA CENTER NEAR YOU, check out Erin Brockovich's report: Patterns of Success: What's Working in the Pushback on Data Centers. In January and February of 2026, the data center industry spent more than $36 billion on new construction in the United States-- compared to $1.4 billion it spent in those months in 2025. Unfortunately, most people don't know that a data center is coming until it's too late. These massive facilities consume as much electricity as 80,000 homes each, drain hundreds of millions of gallons of water annually, run diesel backup generators that pump toxic pollution into the air, and drive up utility bills. In many communities, they can be (and have been) approved without a single public hearing, without a single elected official casting a vote, and without anyone living in the community getting a say.
Brockovitch and Suzanne Boothby report that cities and counties (not states) are finding new tools beyond the moratorium. Monterey Park, California residents became the first in the country to vote on a permanent ban on data centers through a ballot initiative. Ballot initiatives carry far more legal and political weight than a city council-passed ordinance. Local governments can act on shorter timelines with far less lobbying pressure than state legislatures face.
Signed bills such as Florida's SB 484, Oklahoma's HB 2992, Washington's SB 5982 are not moratoriums. They are ratepayer protection and cost-allocation laws. Framing the issue as "data centers shouldn't pass their costs onto residents and small businesses" is proving more politically durable than broader bans. Concrete harm to identifiable people is more actionable than abstract environmental concern. Both water resource protection and electricity cost allocation give legislators and local councils the most defensible ground to stand on.
Brockovitch and Boothby also report on what does not work to stop data centers. And a retired civil servant from India unpacks data centers' environmental impacts.
The U.S.'s largest wind facility will begin commercial operations this month-- in New Mexico. Spanning San Miguel, Lincoln and Torrance counties, the facility will have a total net summer generating capacity of 3,650 megawatts. Composed of 916 wind turbines and about 550 miles of high voltage transmission lines, The SunZia Wind Project will deliver wind power to Arizona and California. Each blade in a wind turbine can weigh 20,000 pounds. Each turbine requires as much as 1500 tons of concrete for its foundation. Each nacelle requires around 800 gallons of synthetic gear oil (to cool and lubricate the gearbox) and about 1200 gallons of transformer oil (for the transformer linked to the turbine). It takes oil to transport the cement for each foundation and every blade to the facility. Wind turbine blades do not biodegrade. At their end-of-life, they need another shipping expedition to get buried"somewhere. Call this a big win(d) for people who call solar PVs, wind and battery power "clean, green and renewable."
For more info about the ecological impacts of wind turbines, see Jeff Gibbs and Michael Moore's documentary, Planet of the Humans-- or Bright Green Lies, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith and Max Wilbert's book and Julia Barnes' documentary about how the environmental movement lost its way
EMR EXPOSURE
Effects of Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields: Thirty years of research: summaries compiled by Dr. Henry Lai from 1990 through May 2026.
The 4th international expert forum on the public health and environmental impacts of cellular and wireless radiation exposure 2024 posted an editorial in Frontiers of Public Health, 09 June 2026. Click Here
Rob Brown, MD's new book, UnPlug: A Radiologist Explores the damage caused by electropollution and how you can prevent it, will ship June 23, 2026.
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