Interesting Ideas

Consumer Reports has revealed the five (5) least reliable midsize SUVs in the United States. Interestingly, shockingly … well, completely unsurprisingly actually, there are no electric vehicles on the list. The five most unreliable midsize SUVs are the following: Jeep Grand Cherokee (29/100 reliability rating) Mazda CX-70 (32/100 reliability rating) ... [continued]

The post Consumer Reports’ List of 5 Least Reliable Midsize SUVs Includes 0 EVs appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

ATLANTA — Today, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy submitted their post-hearing brief in Georgia Power’s 2026 Fuel Cost Recovery docket, detailing how the company seeks to escape any responsibility for rising energy costs and avoid making any adaptations to relieve the ... [continued]

The post Georgia Power Must Share Burden of Fuel Cost With Ratepayers appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Thames at Ham designated as one of 13 new swimming areas across England to be monitored for water quality

The first designated bathing water area on the River Thames in London will welcome swimmers for the official start of the bathing season on Friday as one of 13 new monitored swimming areas across England.

The Thames at Ham, in south-west London, has been designated as a new river bathing water area after campaigners gathered evidence to show thousands of people use the river for swimming throughout the year.

Canvey Island foreshore, Essex

East Beach at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset

Falcon Meadow, Bungay, Suffolk

Granville Parade Beach, Sandgate, Kent

Little Shore, Amble, Northumberland

New Brighton Beach (east), Merseyside

Newton and Noss Creeks, Devon

Pangbourne Meadow, Berkshire

Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire

River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester, Cheshire

River Fowey in Lostwithiel, Cornwall

River Swale in Richmond, Yorkshire

River Thames at Ham and Kingston, Greater London

It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on in the US electric vehicle market. Several automakers have stopped producing EVs or pulled EV models off the market, while others are in a kind of limbo state. The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is one of those models that has been in ... [continued]

The post The Volkswagen ID. Buzz Is NOT Dead In The US appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Back in 2019, I read an article on this very site regarding the Osborne effect and the upcoming risks it represented for the auto industry. It remains one of my favorite articles of all time, and it had this very interesting chart that put into perspective what had been the ... [continued]

The post In Some Countries, EVs Are Already Cheaper Than ICEVs. We’re Here To Tell You How That Looks, And Why It Changes Everything. appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Transaera is using Nobel prize winning technology to manufacture commercial rooftop heating and cooling equipment that dehumidifies.

The post The Rise In Demand For Cooling Sparks Interest In More Energy Efficient Air Conditioners appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Washington, DC — Today, Rep. Rosa DeLauro introduced the Fair Trade for Working Families Resolution, a bill that would ensure U.S. trade policy boosts domestic manufacturing, protects safe, family-supporting jobs, and reduces pollution at home and abroad. The resolution calls for robust environmental standards in trade agreements, strong enforcement mechanisms, ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club Applauds Introduction of Fair Trade for Working Families Resolution appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Yes, after I publish this, we’re going to get people jumping into the comments and complaining about us praising or promoting Chinese automakers and the Chinese government. But this is just about reality. The world is changing, fast, and in the auto world, things look set for some massive transitions. ... [continued]

The post Chinese Automakers Are Going To Take Over The World appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In this week’s newsletter: The public stranding of a young humpback exposes tensions between animal rights activism and other choices around biodiversity

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Timmy the whale is lost at sea, presumed dead.

In normal circumstances, the loss of a young humpback whale would be a sad yet unremarkable part of the circle of life. Dead whales help sustain thousands of marine species – and are part of the global carbon cycle.

Smuggled in syringes: how Nairobi became a nexus for the black market in giant harvester ants

Don’t reach for the bug spray: scientists find insects may feel pain after crickets nurse sore antennae

Labour must fulfil promise to introduce clean air act, charities urge

T&E’s reaction to the EU Passenger Package. From 2027, rail travellers missing a connection due to a delay will automatically be able to jump on the next train, according to new EU rules proposed today. They will also have food and accommodation paid for if they miss the last train. ... [continued]

The post EU Plans to Boost Rail Passenger Rights but Proposals Will Not Deliver a Huge Increase in International Train Travel appeared first on CleanTechnica.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — If a proposal by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) is implemented, the Council will erode its authority to protect the financial system from large nonbank financial companies like insurance companies, nonbank mortgage lenders, and private equity and credit firms, according to documents submitted today by Public Citizen, ... [continued]

The post FSOC’s Proposed Guidance on Nonbank Designations Undermines its Ability to Address Systemic Risk appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Ever fancied creating your own enormous effigy? One Cornish art collective has reinvigorated the practice – and now they want to draw on the public’s skills, too

This New Year’s Eve, environmentalist and author Lisa Schneidau did something she had never done before. She welcomed in 2026 with giants. “At a certain time of the evening, they started appearing from all over the town. Then everyone flooded out of their houses and congregated into a massive procession of giants and lights and drums and music. It was absolutely extraordinary.”

Schneidau’s fairytale experience happened in Lostwithiel, the Cornish home town of the art collective The Lost Giants (TLG), a group of craftspeople and artists reviving the British tradition of making giants and beasties and goliaths. The giants she celebrated with were made of wooden frames and cloth, papier-mache and card, but were full of life.

To apply for a giant, go to The Lost Giants website

Butterfly Conservation poll is open until 7 June with choice of 60 species from small tortoiseshells to purple emperors

Will it be the rapidly disappearing former garden favourite, the small tortoiseshell? Or the poet John Masefield’s “oakwood haunting thing”, the charismatic purple emperor? Or perhaps the brimstone, the ultimate harbinger of spring?

The question of which is Britain’s favourite butterfly is being put to a popular vote for the first time. The charity Butterfly Conservation is running the poll, which runs until 7 June, giving people the chance to choose their favourite from the 60 species that fly around Britain every summer.

Murlough Nature Reserve, Dundrum, County Down: Its arrival signals the start of summer, and another cycle of its extraordinary breeding method

Sheltered from the Irish Sea by the towering white foredunes of Murlough beach, I follow a trail through the heather and scrub. In the distance, the Mourne mountains slip in and out of view, already charred by this year’s wildfires. My attention turns to the season’s happier signs: sand martins chittering overhead; the scratchy cries of a whitethroat deep in the gorse; a meadow pipit stuttering into song flight. And now, the chant that clinches summer’s arrival.

I follow the cuckoo’s call and find him perched in a stunted sycamore. Through binoculars, I meet his orange eye. As he leans into his song, his jaunty tail and drooping wings make a fin for the long torpedo of his body – the ideal form for a life lived on the move.

Glenn Murcutt pioneered architecture that was sensitive to its environment, and accomodating to changing temperatures and wildlife

The house teaches you things, Lynne Eastaway says. Today, a choir of cicadas fill the scrub with a rhythm that rises and falls. On other days, there may be visits from birds, goannas, echidnas, wombats, wallabies and kangaroos.

“The bush ends, and the house begins,” she says. “You’re not the centre; you’re just part of it. That’s the thing you learn.

Study of samples from seven winters suggests neurotoxic metal coming from wood itself rather than old paint

Wood heating is reintroducing lead into the air of local communities and homes, a systematic investigation by academics has found.

Overwhelming evidence of lead’s neurotoxicity meant the metal was banned as an additive in petrol more than 25 years ago. The research by academics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst began by analysing samples of particle pollution from five suburban and rural towns in the north-east US. They looked for tiny particles of potassium that are given off when wood is burned and also particles containing lead.

When the birds started nesting on her land at Useless Bay, Chile, Cecilia Durán Gafo decided she would protect them from people and predators

Five pairs of rubbery feet carry velvet-sheathed black-and-white bodies towards the rope line separating the king penguins from the dozen or so visitors, who look on in awe. As these emissaries shuffle over, a hundred of their cohorts parade on a nearby bank, splashing around in the water and regurgitating food into their chicks’ open beaks.

The king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) makes its home almost exclusively on islands in the Southern Ocean. But it has been coming to this wind-battered bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region for hundreds of years, probably because its shallow shores offer protection from marine predators and humans.

A warm spell mitigated some of the effects of the strike but colder weather would have taken their own toll

May 1926 is remembered in Britain for the general strike, when the TUC called out millions of workers in support of miners who had been locked out while fighting a pay cut.

The strike, which lasted from 3 May to 12 May, took place during a spell of relatively mild weather with little rain. Transport was disrupted but fine conditions allowed many people to walk or cycle to work. There was a shortage of coal but this was mitigated because there was less need for heating. The TUC, fearing legal action and doubting the strike could be sustained, called it off after nine days.

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rolling back protections that stop coal-fired power plants from dumping toxic wastewater—including arsenic, mercury, selenium, and lead—from coal ash waste landfills into U.S. waterways. In September 2025, Donald Trump’s EPA gave coal plant companies a pass by delaying enforcement of long-overdue wastewater protections from coal ... [continued]

The post EPA to Allow More Coal Plants Off the Hook for Toxic Waste Dumped in U.S. Waterways appeared first on CleanTechnica.