Interesting Ideas

LAS VEGAS — Today, a group of environmental, health, and environmental justice advocates hosted a press conference outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo to highlight the benefits of a rapid transition to electric trucks and call out greenwashing by truckmakers such as Volvo and Daimler, ... [continued]

The post Advocates Host Press Conference Outside Las Vegas Advanced Clean Transportation Expo, Calling for Faster Transition to Electric Trucks appeared first on CleanTechnica.

EV batteries are among the many applications for a new semi-solid electrolyte to be produced in Kentucky by the US startup Anthro Energy.

The post Defense Applications Help EV Batteries Over The Funding Hump appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Lobbyist Tara Singh says stripping projects of subsidy contracts would undermine investor confidence in UK

Britain could be beset by levels of economic chaos last seen under Liz Truss if a Reform UK government were to fulfil its promise to strip renewable energy projects of subsidy contracts, according to the industry’s chief lobbyist.

The anti-renewables policy put forward by Nigel Farage’s populist party would severely undermine investor confidence in the energy industry and across the wider UK economy, the new chief executive of RenewableUK said.

In December 1982, South African Rodney Wilkinson walked four bombs into Koeberg power station – the crown jewel of the apartheid state – pulled the pins and then left on his bicycle. How did he do it?

At 21, Rodney Wilkinson was the best fencer in South Africa: national champion in foil and sabre, second in epee. He had toured Europe and Argentina. He had not stood on the Olympic podium, because South Africa was banned. The apartheid state had taken that from him, along with everything else it took from everyone.

One evening in August 1971, Wilkinson stood in the gym at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, foil in hand. He was facing his coach Vincent Bonfil, a 25-year-old Englishman who had represented Britain as a reserve at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, and who was now in Johannesburg finishing a master’s thesis in metallurgy. They were working on a technique in which both fencers lunge simultaneously, and the one who reads the other’s move a split second earlier wins the point. They came at each other. Wilkinson’s foil caught the edge of Bonfil’s sleeve. There was a pop.

Buxton, Derbyshire: A glimpse of gloop in the water, a hasty net purchase, and it was confirmed – palmate newts have moved in. But how long had they been there?

It has been a source of excitement for weeks that we have found ourselves custodians of newts. Judging by the numbers present and the age of our pond, they have probably been here at least a decade. Yet neither our neighbours nor our predecessors at the address knew of any.

I happened to notice a gloop of air rise at the pond surface. That glimpse triggered a few minutes’ scrutiny, and lo, there it was: a palmate newt. It led to a hasty net purchase. Several days later, at the first speculative sweep of the mesh, with which we had hoped to catch at least a single example, it came up with nine. They have been the talk of the house ever since.

Melbourne zoo’s new breeding centre hopes to safeguard the future of the critically endangered Victorian grassland earless dragon

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The dragons’ lair looks deceptively ordinary: a pair of pale green portables, tucked behind the reptile enclosure at Melbourne zoo.

But the plain exterior belies its hidden treasures. Inside, dozens of Victorian grassland earless dragons, blissfully unaware of their status as Australia’s most imperilled reptile, are basking on rocks, gobbling up crickets or lapping up “dew”, expertly misted by their keeper Zac Harkin.

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I supervise the health of our condo community’s private, half-mile dune. Our dune height ranges anywhere from 12 to 14 feet, and the width varies along the entire dune but averages about 150 feet. Invasive wedelia — once upon a time, it was the landscaping choice of developers due to ... [continued]

The post To Glyphosate Or Not To Glyphosate — That Is The Question appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Orban Wallace’s documentary avoids big clashes between landowners and campaigners in favour of wide-ranging exploration

Orban Wallace’s film about the right-to-roam movement shows us a campaigning group with a simple, reasonable aim: to give walkers in England and Wales the same rights that people have in Scotland, courtesy of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, brought into being by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act of 2003. There, walkers have the right to temporary, non-motorised access – which is to say walking, cycling and camping, carried out responsibly – to most land, public or private. These rights have now existed for some time without the apocalyptic end to the countryside as we know it.

Whether some in the right-to-roam movement in England want something more than that, or are prepared to protest more vehemently than simply organising peaceful mass trespass events, is another question. The film interviews landowners such as Francis Fulford, who has long been the media’s favourite outspoken reactionary toff, a sort of posh version of Viz Comic’s Farmer Palmer, snarling “Get off my land”. There are other, more thoughtful landowners, including Hugh Inge-Innes-Lillingston, who cheerfully admits how silly his name is, and is open to developing new ideas about managed access. As far as profiteering goes, I found myself thinking of a remark made by Tara Palmer-Tomkinson: “Land doesn’t really bring in a lot of money until they build a motorway through it.”

The Beijing International Automotive Exhibition marked a clear turning point in how China’s auto industry defines intelligence. What began over the past decade as a race toward electrification and software-defined vehicles is now expanding into what many exhibitors describe as Physical AI — the extension of artificial intelligence beyond the ... [continued]

The post Not Just Cars: Watch The Robotic Shift At Auto China 2026 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Several trends emerged at Auto China, also known as the Beijing Auto Show. The number of new models and the speed that new technology was progressing was a bit overwhelming. However, one of the strongest and most interesting trends came from more established brands. The trend came into focus for ... [continued]

The post Legacy Automakers Pivot On Their Legacies At Auto China appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A new loan program from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is positioning rooftop solar not just as a cost-saving option, but as a mainstream financing category for Filipino households. The state-run pension fund has earmarked ₱12.5 billion ($223 million) for the Ginhawa Solar Energy Loan (GSEL), allowing members to ... [continued]

The post Philippine Pension Fund for Gov’t Retirees Powers Solar Rooftops appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive: Minister says proposals show government’s ambition, as it faces unprecedented pressure from Greens

Tree nurseries could be built at prisons, and military ranges could be turned into heathland or peat bogs as part of an ambitious plan to make government land more nature-friendly, the environment secretary has said.

Speaking before elections this week in which Labour is under pressure from the Green party, Emma Reynolds said such projects showed the government’s intent in restoring natural habitats.

Appeal launched to buy Nottinghamshire cottage, where tree was planted in 19th century, and turn it into heritage centre

Campaigners have launched an appeal to try to save for the nation the mother tree of perhaps the most popular cooking apple in the world.

The original bramley apple tree, which grows in the garden of a cottage in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, is for sale, with the cottage put on the market by its owner, Nottingham Trent University.

A CleanTechnica reader wrote a comment on one of my articles about a small EV charger installation asking why bother writing about such a small development. Well, the answer is because every new public EV charger that is installed matters, and every installation is a success story. Every EV charger ... [continued]

The post Over 800 New EV Chargers May Be Coming To Philadelphia appeared first on CleanTechnica.

High tech milling machines are among the tools at work at the Ford Electric Vehicle Development Center in Long Beach, California, where plans for a new, affordable EV are taking shape.

The post Ford Teases The Affordable EV Of The Future, But Where’s The Beef? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Group that worked with AOC and Bernie Sanders seeks to counter claim that climate policy is politically toxic

Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: that’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives is arguing.

“The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy,” says a new policy platform from left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute (CCI).

Exclusive: ‘Fish sludge’ in coastal waters now has nutrient levels equivalent to those in untreated effluent of country the size of Australia, report finds

Norwegian fish farms are filling fjords and other coastal waters with nutrient pollution equivalent to the raw sewage of tens of millions of people each year, a report has found.

Norway is the largest farmed salmon producer in the world, and nutrients in fish feed are excreted directly into coastal waters. Analysis from the Sunstone Institute found that Norwegian aquaculture released 75,000 tonnes of nitrogen, 13,000 tonnes of phosphorus and 360,000 tonnes of organic carbon in 2025.

International Energy Agency analysis shows methane leaks remained at near-record highs in 2025

Methane emissions from the energy sector remained at near record levels in 2025, the International Energy Agency has concluded.

Tackling the emissions could make billions of cubic metres of gas available to international markets, a top priority as the war in the Middle East squeezes energy supplies, the IEA said in a report.

HARTFORD, Connecticut — The Connecticut Senate has passed S.B. 319, An Act Concerning the Use of Battery-Powered Leaf Blowers and Similar Equipment by the State and Municipalities. In response, Sierra Club Connecticut Organizer Julianna Larue released the following statement: “With half of Connecticut’s counties receiving failing air quality grades and communities ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club Connecticut Statement on State Senate Passage of S.B. 319 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I first spotted the VinFast MPV 7 being delivered to a small dealership hidden inside a gasoline station in Sto Tomas, Batangas — a quiet, unassuming precursor to what has now become a full-scale national rollout. That early glimpse of the electric 7-seater in the provinces set the stage for ... [continued]

The post VinFast Scales Up In Asia As MPV 7 Electric 7-Seater Debuts In The Philippines appeared first on CleanTechnica.