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Amid all the hysteria about ChatGPT and co, one thing is being missed: how energy-intensive the technology is

What to do when surrounded by people who are losing their minds about the Newest New Thing? Answer: reach for the Gartner Hype Cycle, an ingenious diagram that maps the progress of an emerging technology through five phases: the “technology trigger”, which is followed by a rapid rise to the “peak of inflated expectations”; this is succeeded by a rapid decline into the “trough of disillusionment”, after which begins a gentle climb up the “slope of enlightenment” – before eventually (often years or decades later) reaching the “plateau of productivity”.

Given the current hysteria about AI, I thought I’d check to see where it is on the chart. It shows that generative AI (the polite term for ChatGPT and co) has just reached the peak of inflated expectations. That squares with the fevered predictions of the tech industry (not to mention governments) that AI will be transformative and will soon be ubiquitous. This hype has given rise to much anguished fretting about its impact on employment, misinformation, politics etc, and also to a deal of anxious extrapolations about an existential risk to humanity.

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Horticulture charity says climate breakdown is influencing trends, based on inquiries from gardeners

Fruits that thrive in hot weather and can now be grown in the ever-hotter UK summers, and weeds such as cow parsley to decorate borders, are among the 2024 garden trends predicted by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Climate breakdown has influenced most of the trends predicted by the horticulture charity, which seeks insights from its more than 600,000 members to forecast which plants may be in fashion in the coming year. While its trends list used to be based on simply which blooms were in vogue, now it highlights the quirks of gardening in a changing climate amid collapsing biodiversity.

Greening grey spaces Creative ways to green up grey urban spaces has become a major new trend as city gardeners are growing successfully in pots, growing up instead of out and using innovative ways of colonising indoor space, including terrariums.

Grow your own The RHS gardening advice service and website continues to see growth in “grow your own”. The most popular plants are tomatoes, followed by cucumbers, courgettes, chillies and runner beans.

Purple power Purple vegetables have traditionally been difficult for the home gardener but now breeders have begun introducing purple varieties that are easier to grow than traditional ones and avoid previous drawbacks, such as non-fruiting and limited purple colour, especially after cooking. Gardeners and chefs can anticipate purple carrots, cauliflowers, broccoli, tomatoes, peas, radish, French beans and lettuces.

Climate change fruits Recent hot dry summers are ideal for certain fruits, grape vines being an outstanding example – but others include figs, almonds, apricots, melons, peaches/nectarines and watermelons.

Local seed provenances and survivalist gardens After the temporary hiccup to the vegetable supply chain last spring, some gardeners now favour growing with more independence, including where they source their seeds.

Going wild Plants traditionally seen as unwanted weeds such as herb robert and plantain are becoming popular. Cow parsley is now a desirable border plant and dandelions are recognised as being key to providing food for bees early in springtime.

Gardening with nature The move away from classical, formal layouts towards naturalistic landscapes will continue to grow, with gardens making people feel that they are in a wild place and providing benefits to wellbeing, wildlife and ease of maintenance.

Planet-friendly gardening Gardeners will be increasingly in tune with nature: inquiries to the RHS about wildlife gardening increased by more than 28% in 2023.

Houseplants reach the next level – Tropical-looking plants and orchids which create a “jungle vibe” have become popular, as has growing up instead of out. Favourites will include epipremnum, sedum morganianum, and old favourites such as string of hearts and spider plants.

Succulents Driven by houseplants and sourcing drought-resistant bedding, interest in succulents is increasing, with commercial landscapers introducing the hardier ones into landscapes. New cultivars are also being released, including aeonium, cotyledon and crassula.

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Lib Dem analysis finds 4,574 hours of sewage has been spilled in festive swimming spots in the last year

Long-established Christmas seaside swimming locations have been flooded with sewage over the last year, prompting concern that swimmers could fall ill.

They would not be able to claim compensation, as Tory MPs earlier this month blocked a Lib Dem amendment that would have allowed anyone who got sick as a result of illegal sewage dumping to claim from water companies.

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Exemption under federal environment law to allow scientists to collect 25 of the critically endangered ‘walking fish’

Scientists in Tasmania will remove up to half of the island’s “emblematic” red handfish from the wild ahead of expected marine heatwaves deemed an existential threat to their survival.

The critically endangered Tasmanian red handfish population has fallen to between 50 and 100 in the wild, due to the degradation of the seaweed habitat it needs to breed.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

The Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) has revealed the list of entities registered to hold allowances and offsets in the state's WCI-modelled cap-and-invest programme throughout Q4, with the number of companies more than 70% higher than entities that have qualified to bid in auctions.

Compliance entities in the California Carbon Allowance (CCA) market grew both V23 and V24 holdings, while speculators in the RGGI Allowance (RGA) market did the same, as Washington Carbon Allowance (WCA) market saw both groups add to their net length, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Friday.

An exchange backed by the Taiwanese government saw trade in international carbon credits on its inaugural day on Friday, with solid interest from domestic companies.

A Latin American airline group has agreed to buy 400,000 carbon offsets over 10 years to help protect 22,000 hectares in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes of Brazil.

Corporates would be left off the hook for climate targets if the VCMI’s new ‘flexibility’ claim idea for Scope 3 emissions is given the green light, warns a report that finds some companies could even increase their climate pollution up to 2030 as a result.

Mining giant BHP Billiton has completed a joint pilot project with China Baowu Steel Group that focuses on reduced emissions from mined iron ore used in the production of mining car wheels, and using carbon credits to offset the residual greenhouse gases.

An emerging markets hedge fund has made an investment into a prominent climate financier in the voluntary carbon market.

The UK government’s announcement this week on its plans to set up a competitive carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) market was full of references to imports, opening up a way for the green transition to bring the UK and EU closer together in the wake of Brexit. 

A fund focused on conservation in the ‘jaguar corridor’ area of Latin America aims to raise between $100 million and $130 mln by mid-2024, Carbon Pulse has learned.

Sales surge as cities and states look to cut pollution from cars and improve options for Americans to get around

After several years of false starts, electric bikes are finally entering the American mainstream, amid booming sales of a multiplying number of models on offer and as more states offer incentives for people to ditch their cars and shift to two, motor-assisted, wheels.

This year could be considered “the year of the ebike”, according to John MacArthur, a transport researcher at Portland State University. Ebike sales in the United States leaped by 269% between 2019 and 2022, with the market size expected to have grown further in 2023, to be worth $2.59bn.

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A decision by the EU to keep rebalancing tariffs on US steel and aluminium products on stand-by this week may be a sign that tension between the two sides is easing after a years-long dispute, the EU's industry hopes.

Voluntary carbon credit retirements have almost reached the same level as a year earlier with just days remaining in 2023, boosted by a surge in activity by an oil major early on Friday.

A fund created as an alternative to carbon offsetting by a EU-based climate project platform has launched a three-pronged call for proposals ahead of its fourth round of allocations of grants and pre-purchases in Q2 2024.

The Secretariat of the ART carbon credit standard on Friday announced that it has approved a listing for Burkina Faso under its TREES jurisdictional certification programme.

A cross-party group of British MPs has urged the UK government to consider demand management measures for the aviation sector and to account comprehensively for the carbon footprint of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) to ensure its 2050 net zero emissions goal is met.