Interesting Ideas

Vitória Régia imagines rightwing Bolsonaro plot succeeded with US help – and highlights threats facing Indigenous peoples

The year is 2025 and far-right coup plotters have annihilated Brazil’s democracy, assassinating the president, closing the national congress and surrendering the Amazon rainforest and its untold riches to the United States.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Amazon of America,” a thick-accented North American soldier tells a group of journalists being taken on a propaganda tour of an oil refinery in the newly annexed jungle realm. Nearby, a replica of the Statue of Liberty has been carved out of the wilderness to celebrate Washington’s tutelage over more than half of Brazil.

East Midlands electric car club helps residents and cuts emissions – but the need for a volunteer-led scheme reflects a much wider problem

In the aftermath of the Covid pandemic Miriam Stoate, a regenerative farmer from rural Leicestershire, noticed that too many people in her small village in England’s East Midlands were struggling to get around.

Although there were plenty of cars parked in Tilton, too often she found some of the village’s residents did not have access to one when they really needed it.

Are high gas prices driving a switch to electric cars? Not according to one recent survey that indicated quite the opposite.

The post Oooooh, Scary Electric Cars Are Everywhere In America! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Sarah Eberle hopes to inspire people to nurture where town and countryside meet and nature is need of protection

Stinging nettles, buttercups, broken crockery, fly-tipped flowers and a discarded gnome are not the usual hallmarks of an RHS Chelsea flower show garden.

But this year’s On the Edge garden by Sarah Eberle – the most decorated designer at Chelsea – is designed not to look like a garden at all, rather to transport its visitors to the liminal spaces on the outskirts of towns where the countryside begins and nature is in critical need of protection.

Allendale, Northumberland: Once again, wildlife has made a home here, in part because they feel safe

A big moon is cresting the Scots pine as I sit at an upstairs window looking down on to the garden. Awaiting the dusk emergence of a female tawny owl has become an evening ritual. After a day spent in the confines of a nest box in our sycamore tree, her departure shifts back by a few minutes every night. Completely silent, she drops towards the woodland border and skims the plants, each time on the same trajectory, a grey shadow in the gloaming.

Another movement on the path below catches my eye: a woodcock slinking along, using the box hedge to disguise her passage. If I hadn’t been watching for the owl I would never have known that she too is nesting somewhere in the garden’s thick leafiness. In July 2023, I wrote about a woodcock nesting in a flower border a few metres from the house, four chicks successfully hatching from four eggs. Last year, another attempt was disturbed by a cat captured on trailcam. This may be the same bird returned for a third time. Woodcocks are extremely secretive birds, their close proximity to a house very unusual.

Last year, Greenlane shared some details with CleanTechnica about its truck charging expansion in southern California and Arizona. In May of this year, Greenlane announced it is expanding its truck charging offerings into the state of Texas, with charging sites planned for Houston and Dallas along Interstate 45. This area ... [continued]

The post Greenlane Expands Electric Truck Charging, Plans Chargers In Texas appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Starting July 1 of this year, local tariffs for imported EVs to Malaysia will increase based on the value of the vehicle. Malaysia’s Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) said in a statement earlier this month, May 2026, that the significant policy shift is designed to protect national automakers ... [continued]

The post Malaysia Is Increasing Local Tariffs To Protect Its National Car Brands appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Eden Project’s National Wildflower Centre is opening entries for its Wildflower Photographer of the Year 2026 competition on 29 May. The contest showcases images of some of Britain and Ireland’s 1,600 wildflower species, and a selection of photos from last year’s competition will be on display at Eden Dock, Canary Wharf, London, during CWG’s Nature Week, from 13 July

Emissions understated by factor of five in Essex plans for tech giant, while Greystoke’s Lincolnshire plans show similar error

Developers working for Google have significantly misstated how much carbon two proposed AI datacentres will contribute to the UK’s total emissions in planning documents reviewed by the Guardian.

The tech company wants to build two huge datacentres – one 52-hectare (130 acre) project in Thurrock and another at an airfield in North Weald, both in Essex. To do so, developers are required to submit planning documents calculating how much carbon these projects will emit as a proportion of the UK’s total carbon footprint.

Chery Automobile has evolved from a single domestic Chinese automaker into a large multi-brand automotive group with brands targeting mainstream, premium, EV, off-road, export, and luxury segments. Some are global facing, while others remain mostly China focused. Chery increasingly resembles a Chinese version of a multi-marque automotive group similar to ... [continued]

The post Does Chery’s Roster of Brands Provide More Opportunities in Canada? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Thanks to Simply Gregster EV for the footage confirming our earlier story. A walkaround video from Simply Gregster EV has provided the clearest on-the-ground evidence yet that Chinese automakers have already begun staging vehicles in Canada ahead of a formal market entry. Filmed in Toronto, the footage captures multiple camouflaged ... [continued]

The post Chery EVs Arrive in Canada Ready of Pre-Selling Preparations appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Warming ocean waters are priming beaches and raw shellfish for Vibrio even as scientists are trying to stay one step ahead

Bailey Magers and Sunil Kumar cut strange figures on Pensacola Beach. Bags of disinfectant solution surrounded them on the white sand; their gloved hands juggled test tubes while layers of rubber and plastic shielded their skin from the elements. As the two organized their seawater samples on the popular Florida shoreline last August, an older woman wearing a swimsuit walked over to ask what they were doing.

“We’re just actively monitoring water quality,” they told her, but she pressed on.

Geely may have quietly secured a strategic opening into the Canadian market long before its own badge officially arrives there. Through its ownership of the British performance marque Lotus Cars and its Nasdaq-listed technology arm Lotus Technology, the Chinese automotive giant has now physically delivered the first Chinese-made electric vehicles ... [continued]

The post Lotus Sent Its First Batch Of 18 EVs To Canada. Is It Paving The Way For Geely? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Despite our vast distances in Australia, most trucks operate along transport corridors north–south on the east coast. With a will and some investment, this corridor can be electrified. Here are a couple more stories of progress along the route to electrification. It is certainly not China speed and can get ... [continued]

The post More Battery Electric Trucks Take To Australian Roads appeared first on CleanTechnica.

With the help of citizen scientists, researchers studying rare humpback ‘jaw-gaping’ believe the move could be a social display

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Off the coast of Western Australia, a humpback whale is “pirouetting”, sweeping its pectoral fins through the water, its massive jaw hanging wide open. Surrounded by companions, the animal isn’t lunging for a meal: rather, it is putting on a mysterious behavioural display.

This underwater ballet, captured on camera by an onlooker and shared online, is one of the clearest examples of a rarely documented phenomenon known as “gaping”.

In the video below, Larry Evans and Raymond Tribdino talk about their recent trips to the Beijing Auto Show (Auto China 2026), the vast EV offerings on the market in China, as well as the growing availability of Chinese EV models in the ASEAN region, South America, and beyond. We ... [continued]

The post Divergence in the World EV Market — Auto China 2026 vs US Market appeared first on CleanTechnica.

London mayor talks up coalition-building, highlights his environmental record, and worries national Labour party is on the wrong track

When Sadiq Khan was first elected as mayor of London 10 years ago, Barack Obama was US president, the UK was still in the European Union and Leicester City had just been crowned the unlikely champions of the English Premier League.

In the intervening decade, Donald Trump has gone from reality TV star to two-time US president, the UK has had six different prime ministers, and Brexit has convulsed the country. London has been rocked by tragedies ranging from terror attacks to the Grenfell Tower fire.

Before a single offshore wind turbine rises off Philippine waters, something else has to be built first. Not at sea, but on land. Across San Miguel Bay in Bicol and the Guimaras Strait in Western Visayas, the country’s most advanced offshore wind zones are beginning to reveal a hard truth ... [continued]

The post Offshore Wind in the Philippines Won’t Prosper Without Ports appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Council’s plan will leave Federal Emergency Management Agency ill-equipped to respond to extreme weather events, experts say

Sweeping changes may be in store at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the nation’s frontline emergency response coordinator, that experts warned could further erode US capacity to handle disasters as the risks of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis continue to rise.

Fears about a fundamental overhaul of Fema’s form and function have been brewing since Donald Trump returned to the White House. After castigating the agency over claims that it was too expensive and “doesn’t get the job done”, Trump set to gutting Fema as an early priority for his second term.

Two-hundred and fifty EV chargers have been installed at Winnipeg multi-family residential properties by Powertec Electric. “At Powertec Electric, we care deeply about the environment. Our sister company, Powertec Solar, focuses exclusively on solar panel installations because green solutions matter so much to us. Partnering with New Flyer, a company ... [continued]

The post 250 EV Chargers Installed In Winnipeg appeared first on CleanTechnica.