Interesting Ideas

ATLANTA, GA— Environmental organizations and faith communities filed an appeal today asking a Fulton County Superior Court to review the Georgia Public Service Commission’s December decision to approve Georgia Power’s proposal to add an additional 10 GW of energy generation to the grid at customers’ expense without proving a need for such ... [continued]

The post Groups Challenge PSC’s Approval of Massive Georgia Power Gas Expansion appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Constituents’ frustration with Richard Tice reflects growing problem for party and its leaders’ climate-sceptic stance

“The worst part of it was the smell,” says Audrey Crook, 58. A full-time carer who lives with her 20-year-old son, Crook woke up at 11pm one night to find a foot of flood water on the ground floor of her home. “It was like black water. It had sewage and everything in it, it was absolutely disgusting.”

Crook’s home – along with more than 30 others on Wyberton West Road and Park Road in Boston, Lincolnshire – was flooded in January last year when heavy rain swept across the region, raising river levels and exceeding flood defences.

This is the culminating article in a series exploring from the outside a decarbonization solution set and coarse roadmap for Hawaiʻi. It is a set of possible next actions that a Hawaiian agency, utility, authority, or coalition could undertake if the roadmap outlined in this series is worth exploring further. ... [continued]

The post Turning the Plan Into Action: Next Steps for Oʻahu’s Clean Energy System appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Rising energy bills give Reform and Tories opening to attack net zero while government hesitant to make case for clean energy

Could net zero become “the next Brexit”? That is the fear stalking climate advocates as the oil crisis caused by the war on Iran starts to bite.

A powerful coalition of the well-funded Reform party, led by Nigel Farage, the Conservative party, some business interests, and the UK’s right-wing media, are engaged in an onslaught against the longstanding target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

EVs are ‘super-lever’ to ending oil dependence; European oil imports set to rise to €300 billion in 2026, an €80 billion oil crisis premium. If Europe maintains its ambition on electric car uptake, it can close the gap with China before 2030 and radically reduce oil use in transport, new research from ... [continued]

The post Europe Just 3 Years Behind China on Electric Vehicles Sales appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Nature-based solutions work. They’re cost effective. They advance climate mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity protection. They do need more financing strategies, however. To meet global biodiversity, climate, and land restoration targets, nature-based investment must increase 2.5 times to $571 billion annually by 2030—equivalent to just 0.5% of global GDP, states the ... [continued]

The post Why Nature-Based Investments Produce Results appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A long-running experiment in Colorado provides an ‘alarming’ view of how rapidly unchecked global heating could transform fragile ecosystems

Every summer, people descend on the wildflower capital of Colorado to see grasslands flush with corn lilies, aspen sunflowers and sub-alpine larkspur. In January 1991, scientists set up a unique experiment in these Rocky Mountain meadows. It was one of the first (and longest running) to work out how the changing climate would affect an ecosystem.

At the time, it was believed a temperature increase could lead to longer, lusher grasses. But instead of flourishing, the grasses and wildflowers started to disappear, replaced by sage brush. The experimental meadows morphed into a desert-like scrubland. Even the fungi in the soils were transformed by heat.

India has some of the most polluted cities in the world. That air pollution harms human health. It also contributes to many premature human deaths each year. While most of us don’t work in public health and have never heard of the term environmental health, there is plenty of evidence ... [continued]

The post 915 Electric Buses Ordered For Use In India appeared first on CleanTechnica.

US, top carbon emitter in history, has ‘a lot of responsibility’ for causing ‘substantial’ harm globally, scientist says

The US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found.

By being the largest carbon emitter in history, the US has caused greater harm to worldwide economic growth than any other country, ahead of China, now the world’s largest emitter that is responsible for $9tn in GDP damage since 1990, according to the findings of the paper.

During the second world war, farmers received forecasts in code and railway announcers were banned from blaming delays on fog or snow

Data security is not just a modern issue. The BBC stopped its daily weather forecasts as soon as the second world war started. They had been a feature of the radio schedule since 1923 but continuing them would have given vital weather intelligence to the Germans.

In particular, the forecast provided information about when skies would be clear, what winds were blowing and when storms were expected, all of which would be helpful for the Luftwaffe when planning bombing raids.

Regulator for England lacks powers to deal with what the public accounts committee calls an ‘out-of-control plague’

The Environment Agency is too weak to tackle an “out-of-control plague” of waste dumping, a powerful group of MPs has said.

The public accounts committee (PAC) said the EA had gaps in its powers and intelligence gathering which meant it was not set up to deal effectively with the rise in waste dumping.

CVOW Is On Track to Be the Largest Offshore Wind Project in the United States HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — This week, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (CVOW) began delivering affordable, reliable, and renewable offshore wind power to Virginia. When construction is complete, CVOW’s 176 wind turbines will power up to ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club Celebrates as the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project Powers On appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I recently received BLUETTI’s newest product, a very interesting one that is quite different from the normal portable power station lineup. The BLUETTI FridgePower* is designed specifically for use with refrigerators. Rather than trying to be a broad solution for all kinds of uses, it is tailored to be the ... [continued]

The post The BLUETTI FridgePower — Real-World Review appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Marches, Shropshire: The call of the chiffchaff and the turning of the allotment soil – these are seasonal rituals honed over time

A pair of ravens, barking mad, perform their shuttling flight in glorious sunshine above Old Racecourse Common. A charm of chaffinches flash white wing-bars through the shadows of mossy willows around the pond. A queen red-tailed bumblebee orbits a hedgebank boundary stone, then buzzes off to feed on gorse flowers or prospect for possible colony chambers below.

A lesser-spotted woodpecker hammers out rapid bursts of drumbeats from a stand of beech across the misty distances of the hills. Chiffchaffs find their rhythm in the oaks. These constantly repeated two-note phrases are not what they seem when you hear the writer and musician Mark E Smith say of his own work: “It’s not repetition, it’s discipline.” A chiffchaff flies out from tree cover, across the open common, an apparition so slight compared with the powerful, hidden voice, to resume their discipline in further oaks.

My friend Peter Tranter has recently made some big changes in life, moving from a medium sized property to a retirement village and also purchasing an MG S5 electric SUV. CleanTechnica readers were introduced to the MG S5 8 months ago here. I asked him if I could share his ... [continued]

The post From Forklifts to the Future: Why My Switch to an MG S5 Just Makes Sense appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The controversy surround the claim by Donut Lab that It has created a solid state battery continues to swirl.

The post Donut Lab — Battery Specs Proven, But Not All Of Them appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The fishery is regulated but experts say it is wrecking the food chain. Gordon Peake joined a Sea Shepherd mission to observe the giant ships compete for catch

It is bitterly cold on the deck of the Allankay and the bosun, Luca Massari, is checking that none of us are wearing contact lenses before we descend into Antarctic waters. There is a risk, he warns, that lenses will freeze solid over the eyes. Massari himself is prepared for his surroundings. He is wearing thick goggles that make him look like an Olympic ski jumper.

Massari is a burly, heavily tattooed veteran of the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd, which campaigns against exploiting the oceans. His deck team are preparing to launch the ship’s small boat, which Massari will helm. Eight of us are bundled in bright red dry suits, helmets and lifejackets; the average time to survive hypothermia in this wind-whipped water is just five minutes.

The Allankay sailed to Coronation Island from New Zealand to document the krill fishing. Photograph: Alice Bacou/Sea Shepherd

As species vanish and the unique ecosystem radically changes, Ukrainian scientists can only wait until it is safe to properly assess the damage

In the embattled harbours of Odesa, a scientific vessel lists in its mooring. No one has been able to take a look at the damage to the Boris Alexander from Russian drones and shelling that have hit the port city over the past four years of war in Ukraine. It is too dangerous, just as no one has been able to fully monitor the damage the war is doing to the Black Sea.

“We can only wait,” says Dr Jaroslav Slobodnik, the director of the Environmental Institute, headquartered in the Slovak Republic. “The biodiversity landscape is completely altered. A number of species seem to have disappeared, but we need more data. Data which the war makes it impossible to collect.”

Small farmers and community-led conservation groups are trying to protect one of the biggest semi-arid forests in the world – under threat from expanding agriculture, wildfires and the ‘logging mafia’

Jorge Luna stands in a piece of Argentina’s Gran Chaco forest that he calls his own. Birds sing as he surveys skyscraping molle trees, known as pepper trees, palo santo and algarrobo, or carob trees. “It’s good wood,” says Luna, 55. “I was about to cut them down.”

Selling timber promises quick and easy money in the sprawling ecosystem that covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. But it comes at a steep price, contributing to rampant deforestation and irreversible damage to the forest.

Honda and Sony have canceled Afeela, the joint venture that was supposed to start selling new electric cars this year.

The post Sony & Honda Pull The Plug On Afeela appeared first on CleanTechnica.