Interesting Ideas

Hogshaw, Derbyshire: They’re in our paintings, in our folklore. A little opportunistic planting and I’ve got them in my garden

As I cleared our garden of dead vegetation, including many old teasels, I realised that the latter were still shedding seeds and luring goldfinches to them. Not wishing to deprive winter birds of food, or myself of opportunity, I planted the stalks in a single grove, and set up a mobile hide. Within minutes, a kind of magic unfolded. Sulphur wings twittered as old plants swayed with their featherweight burdens and the pointed pink beaks jabbed relentlessly for food.

Of all European birds, goldfinches are surely those best able to illustrate the survival of magical thinking in our world. Throughout the middle ages and the Renaissance, more than 300 artists across 486 works – including those of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo – painted Madonna and Child images with goldfinches secreted in them.

Experts are calling for the integration of mental health into climate-disaster policy in the Caribbean as studies show that PTSD risks increase after hurricanes and displacement

When Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on 28 October with 185mph winds, destroying homes, hospitals and infrastructure, killing 32 people and affecting 1.5 million, Toni-Jan Ifill immediately realised it would leave many with long-term traumatic memories.

A month and a half after the storm, which also affected eastern Cuba, the clinical psychologist says recollections of the terrifying winds also haunt some of the staff at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston. Even the sound of rain can cause trauma responses among people who lived through it.

Some car execs suggest a return to the combustion engine will restore Europe’s competitiveness. They couldn’t be more wrong. By William Todts, Executive Director Henry Ford apparently once said, “if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” A hundred years on his successor, Ford CEO ... [continued]

The post The EU’s 2035 Target IS The Certainty That The Industry Needs appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Despite billions in investment and backing from the federal government, carbon capture and storage technology ‘should be in no way treated as a climate solution’, critics say

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The US energy company Chevron describes it as the world’s largest industrial carbon dioxide injection project of its kind. But it has a problem. It still isn’t working as promised and the results are getting worse.

The $3bn Gorgon carbon capture and storage (CCS) development, on Barrow Island off Western Australia’s Pilbara coast, was supposed to start operating in 2016, backed by $60m in federal government funding. Chevron and its partners in the project, including Shell and ExxonMobil, said it would capture up to 4m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from an underwater gas field each year and inject it in a reservoir more than 2km beneath the island.

Jessica O’Bryan puts the $60,000 Musso EV through its paces in suburban Sydney and finds some pluses, some minuses – but no charging points

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When I am handed the keys to Australia’s first affordable fully electric ute, to say I feel nervous is an understatement.

I’ve been driving a 2014 Volkswagen Polo for the past four years, and before that, a Holden Astra that was older than me.

I recently wrote about the latest updates to the long-running Tesla vs. Waymo battle. However, I missed some things! Plus, I completely forgot about a pretty wild claim Elon Musk made earlier in the year and therefore missed adding an update on that as part of this discussion. Waymo vs. ... [continued]

The post Tesla vs. Waymo Continued, & Elon Musk’s Big 2025 Robotaxi Rollout Miss appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This report looks into how Ukraine could pilot infrastructure charges, or tolls for trucks based on their impact on the road surface and environment. Tolling trucks is a technical solution to implement the “user” and “polluter pays” principles. Toll revenue could help ease budgetary pressures Ukraine faces and optimise EU funds allocation. If Ukraine ... [continued]

The post Eurovignette for Ukraine: Truck Tolling to Save Ukrainian Roads & Environment appeared first on CleanTechnica.

SM Bicutan, one of the many malls under the ShoeMart chain in the Philippines, is along the flight path as my Korean Air flight lands in Manila. I can see the bright Christmas light array from 200 feet up. As millions of Filipino families gather beneath towering Christmas trees illuminated ... [continued]

The post A Solar-Powered Christmas: How Sunshine Powers The Philippines’ Largest Malls For More Holiday Cheer appeared first on CleanTechnica.

While Tesla and BYD (not in that order) dominate EV headlines globally, Japan’s EV sales success for three consecutive years is a tiny 11-foot-long kei car that costs roughly $14,000 after subsidies and offers just 112 miles of range. The Nissan Sakura has become more than a sales success—it’s arguably ... [continued]

The post Op-Ed: How A $14,000 Electric Kei Car Became Japan’s Best-Selling EV & Saved Nissan appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Ten years after I first followed the proposed route, I retraced my steps to see what life was like along the world’s most expensive, heavily delayed railway line

Ten years ago, I walked the route of HS2, the 140-mile railway proposed to run from London to Birmingham, to discover what lay in its path. Nothing had actually been constructed of this, supposedly the first phase of a high-speed line going north. The only trace was the furtive ecological consultants mapping newts and bats and the train’s looming presence in the minds of those who lived along the route. For many, it was a Westminster vanity project, symbolising a country run against the interests of the many to line the pockets of the few. People whose homes were under threat of demolitionwere petitioning parliament, campaigning for more tunnels or hoping the project would collapse before their farms, paddocks and ancient woodlands were wiped out.

The line, we were told a decade ago, would be completed by 2026. Like many of the early claims about the longest railway to be built in Britain since the Victorian era, that fact no longer stands. The fast train is running – very – late. The official finish date of 2033 was recently revised upwards. “The best guess is that it will begin with a ‘4’ when you can catch a train,” one well-informed observer told me. There’s similar uncertainty about its cost, but one thing is sure: it is catastrophically over budget. When complete, HS2 will almost certainly be the most expensive railway in the world. Nearly 20 years ago, HS1, the line from the Channel tunnel to St Pancras, was completed on time and on budget for £51m per mile (£87m in today’s prices). It was criticised for being twice as expensive as a high-speed route constructed in France. HS2 may cost almost £1bn per mile.

The oil and gas industry must be legally bound to cut methane emissions. With climate tipping points approaching, time is running out

• Mia Mottley is the prime minister of Barbados

The timing is brutal. Just as the world celebrates the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Paris climate agreement this month, new evidence shows that the world is crashing through the main defence that was constructed against climate catastrophe.

The three-year temperature average is – for the first time – set to exceed the Paris guardrail of 1.5C above preindustrial levels. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2025 will join 2023 and 2024 as the three warmest since the Industrial Revolution, reflecting the accelerating pace of the climate crisis.

Mia Mottley is the prime minister of Barbados

INDIANAPOLIS – A full page open letter in the Sunday papers of the Indianapolis Star calls on the country’s largest technology company CEOs — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella — to power their data centers with clean energy, or risk failing to meet their own ... [continued]

The post Full Page Open Letter Calls on Amazon, Google, Meta, & Microsoft to Stop Fueling Climate Change with Data Center Demands appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Climate crisis forecast to wipe out thousands of glaciers a year globally, threatening water supplies and cultural heritage

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Glaciers in the European Alps are likely to reach their peak rate of extinction in only eight years, according to a study, with more than 100 due to melt away permanently by 2033. Glaciers in the western US and Canada are forecast to reach their peak year of loss less than a decade later, with more than 800 disappearing each year by then.

The melting of glaciers driven by human-caused global heating is one of the clearest signs of the climate crisis. Communities around the world have already held funeral ceremonies for lost glaciers, and a Global Glacier Casualty List records the names and histories of those that have vanished.

Social and environmental reporting to be required of fewer companies after EPP aligns with far right to achieve goals

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Fewer companies operating in Europe will be made to carry out due diligence on the societal harms they cause, in what green groups have called a “betrayal” of communities affected by corporate abuse.

The gutting of the EU’s sustainability reporting and due diligence rules, which was greenlit by MEPs on Tuesday, slashes the number of companies covered by laws to protect human and ecological rights, and removes provisions to harmonise access to justice across member states.

XPENG is expanding into the Southeast Asia region, as it just signed an agreement with Malaysian industrial partner EP Manufacturing Berhad (EPMB) to begin local assembly operations in Malacca, with production scheduled to commence in 2026, the companies announced Thursday. The announcement came after XPENG announced on December 12 that ... [continued]

The post XPENG to Begin Local Assembly in Malaysia by Mid-2026 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Unless urgent action is taken life will be fundamentally altered for the ancient communities who live on its banks

As a leader of one of the oldest gnostic religions in the world, Sheikh Nidham Kreidi al-Sabahi must use only water taken from a flowing river, even for drinking.

The 68-year-old has a long grey beard hanging over his simple tan robe and a white cap covering his equally long hair, which sheikhs are forbidden from cutting. He says he has never got ill from drinking water from the Tigris River and believes that as long as the water is flowing, it is clean. But the truth is that soon it may not be flowing at all.

Only 10,000 out of economic bloc’s 6m trucks are electric and are more likely to be operating on short routes

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The chances of the European trucking industry hitting zero emissions targets are “dire”, an industry body has warned, as it emerged that only a tiny amount of lorries delivering goods in the EU are electric.

Speaking as the European Commission prepares to water down electric car targets, the boss of the association for commercial vehicles called on the commission to commit to an urgent review of the sector, tackling problems including a lack of public charging points, a lack of tax breaks for trucks and high energy costs.

New entry-level mobility — The ID. Polo is the first of four new Volkswagen electric models in the small car and compact segment, which will be launched from 2026 onwards Wide choice — The ID. Polo will initially be available with three power outputs (85 kW, 99 kW, 155 kW), two battery ... [continued]

The post Volkswagen ID. Polo on the Road to Series Production — Reinventing a Bestseller appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The news about electric vehicles from Ford this week is dire, including taking an enormous loss against earnings this quarter.

The post Farley Follies Foil Ford F-150 Lightning Plans appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The new Nissan LEAF is one of the most exciting new electric cars I’ve seen introduced in a while. Seemingly trying to reach back into its EV leadership long, long ago, Nissan has developed an updated crossover LEAF that looks like everything a human could want on four wheels at ... [continued]

The post New Nissan LEAF Now In Production In UK appeared first on CleanTechnica.