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United Nations University

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Aerial view of the Google data center at Eemshaven, Netherlands, surrounded by wind turbines and a nearby power plant. As AI expands, data centers like this require large amounts of electricity, making energy supply a key challenge -Aerial view of the Google data center at Eemshaven, Netherlands, surrounded by wind turbines and a nearby power plant. As AI expands, data centers like this require large amounts of electricity, making energy supply a key challenge. Photo by Wvdp
AI

AI’s hidden environmental cost: UN report flags massive water, energy and land footprint

AI’s rapid growth is driving major water, energy, land and e-waste impacts, raising environmental justice concerns worldwide

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
In many regions, human–water systems are already in a post-crisis state of failure. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
AQUIFERS

World enters era of ‘global water bankruptcy’, UN report warns

Traditional talk of a water crisis and water stress no longer reflects the current reality

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University, delivers the TUT 20th Anniversary Lecture.
4IR

Twenty years of moving from good to great: The Tshwane University of Technology

TUT embraces AI and has made it central to all of its teaching, research and innovation

  • Tshwane University of Technology
7 min read
Glaciers in a third of all World Heritage sites, including Africa’s last remaining glaciers, are “condemned to disappear by 2050”. (AFP)
SPACE JUNK

UN: Melting glaciers, heat, space debris among tipping points of risk

Extinctions, depleted groundwater and an uninsurable future are the others, and together they create instability with potentially catastrophic effects

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Strong academic credentials: Professor Zodwa Dlamini. Photo: Mariki Uitenweerde
DEBRA MEYER

Race on to replace UJ vice-chancellor Tshilidzi Marwala

Some groups are putting their weight behind an African candidate and others favour a woman

  • Edwin Naidu
15 min read
And as South Africa marks Human Rights Day, thirty years after human dignity was written into law, this is the reckoning we cannot postpone.
CORONAVIRUS

SA’s richest 3 500 own more than the bottom 32-million

When people call South Africa the most unequal country in the world, they’re talking about income. Now, we have a clear picture of how unequally the country’s wealth is distributed

  • Dennis Webster
5 min read