Interesting Ideas

When temperatures drop suddenly, trapped water can freeze and expand, splitting trunks with a gunshot-like sound

During the recent cold spell in the northern US, meteorologists issued warnings about exploding trees.

A tree’s first line of defence against freezing is its bark, which provides efficient insulation. In cold conditions, trees also enter a form of hibernation, with changes at a cellular level: cells dehydrate, harden and shrink, increasing their sugar concentration. This is the botanical equivalent of adding antifreeze, helping to prevent the formation of ice crystals.

A Waymo robotaxi in California hit a child, a 10-year-old girl, this week. That headline is, naturally, going to get people’s blood boiling and fears soaring. But it’s quite important to look at the details before jumping to conclusions. So, the young girl apparently ran into the road after being ... [continued]

The post Waymo Responds Regarding Child Hit By Robotaxi — Important Notes appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Time to fly! Starting yesterday, Bay Area travelers can catch their next flight at San Francisco International Airport via convenient and fully autonomous Waymo rides. We’ll start by offering SFO access to a select number of riders and will gradually welcome all riders over the coming months. Initially, pickups and ... [continued]

The post Clear Skies and Autonomous Waymo Rides at SFO appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Alberta’s January 2026 Order in Council authorizing expanded powers and funding for the province’s petroleum marketing agency shouldn’t exist, and if it had, it should have been a bill. Authorizing up to $900 million across borrowing, advances or investments by the Minister of Finance and provincial debt with broad powers ... [continued]

The post Alberta’s $900 Million Bet: How the Province Chose Fossil Risk Over Clean Energy Markets appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A week ago, one of our writers who owns a Tesla Model 3 (like myself) wrote an article about potentially trading it in for a new Tesla. His article compared his 2019 Model 3 with a new Model Y and examined what would be better and what would be worse. ... [continued]

The post Responses to Tesla Trade-in Article appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Emergency pumps are deployed in attempt to stop water inundating homes around River Parrett

• ‘Like a sea out there’: flooded Somerset residents wonder how water can be managed

Since medieval monks started draining and managing the Somerset Levels, humans have struggled to live and work alongside water.

“At the moment it feels like a losing battle,” said Mike Stanton, the chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority. “Intense rainfall is hitting us more often because of climate change. It may be that in the next 50 years, perhaps in the next 20, some homes around here will have to be abandoned.”

Well, things might be getting wild. When SolarCity was facing financial challenges, Tesla swallowed it up. Elon Musk was the Chairman of the Board at SolarCity, and his cousins were the cofounders, CEO, and CTO. The synergies were supposed to help both, but Tesla’s solar business has declined a great ... [continued]

The post Tesla, SpaceX, & xAI Merging? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

More than 300 brown hairstreak butterfly eggs discovered near Llandeilo this winter after decade of decline

Record numbers of eggs of the rare brown hairstreak butterfly have been found in south-west Wales after landowners stopped flailing hedges every year.

The butterfly lays its eggs on blackthorn every summer. But when land managers and farmers mechanically cut hedges every autumn, thousands of the eggs are unknowingly destroyed.

Pan Europe found several pesticide residues in 85% of apples, with some showing traces of up to seven chemicals

Environmental groups have raised the alarm after finding toxic “pesticide cocktails” in apples sold across Europe.

Pan Europe, a coalition of NGOs campaigning against pesticide use, had about 60 apples bought in 13 European countries – including France, Spain, Italy and Poland – analysed for chemical residues.

Vision Pulse leverages ultra-wide band (UWB) signals to detect precise object positions in real time and issue timely alerts, increasing driving safety UWB-based detection enables real-time accuracy of up to 10-centimeters within a 100-meter radius, even in visually obstructed environments Enables development of advanced driver assistance functions that maintain high ... [continued]

The post Hyundai Motor & Kia Unveil ‘Vision Pulse,’ Driver Safety Technology that Detects Beyond Obstacles appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Electric vehicles are ‘batteries on wheels’ and have capabilities beyond transportation. Because of the recent frigid weather and snow, someone mentioned the fact that a Ford Lightning can be used as backup power during an outage. Of course, it isn’t only Lightnings that can provide such backup power. Potentially, any ... [continued]

The post Active Managed EV Charging Can Double EV Hosting Capacity appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Experts say administration has launched ‘war on all fronts’ to undo environmental rules – here are the key areas at risk

In his first year back in office, Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency, initiating nearly 70 actions to undo rules protecting ecosystems and the climate.

The agency’s wide-ranging assault on the environment will put people at risk, threatening air and water quality, increasing harmful chemical exposure, and worsening global warming, experts told the Guardian. The changes amount to “a war on all fronts that this administration has launched against our health and the safety of our communities and the quality of our environment,” said Matthew Tejada, the former director of the EPA’s environmental justice program.

Despite no criminal charges being brought against them, four officers have been detained since the MV Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six workers

Several crew members of a ship that collided with a bridge in Baltimore almost two years ago are still being held in the US by federal authorities despite the fact that no criminal charges have been brought against them.

In the early hours of 26 March 2024, the MV Dali departed the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka. While navigating the Fort McHenry channel, the 1,000ft-long Singapore-flagged cargo vessel lost power before striking the bridge. The impact resulted in the deaths of six people who were working on the bridge at the time.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Plastics make up the majority of litter across the country. In the absence of regulation, the public are taking matters into their own hands

• Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

Neil Blake weighs a paper bag of fake grass fragments he has collected from a stormwater gutter near Darebin Creek in Melbourne’s north.

Over the past three years Blake has conducted 56 collections of synthetic turf in the waterway alongside the KP Hardiman Reserve hockey pitch.

Renewable energy in China is surging, with follow on effects that impact the entire world community on the way to the future.

The post The Chinese Renewable Energy Revolution Affects The Whole World appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Preparing to kick off the Burnaby Board of Trade’s 2026 Clean Energy Summit next month felt like the right moment to take inventory. Burnaby sits inside a province where roughly 98% of electricity is already non emitting, hosts a dense cluster of clean energy companies, and also contains a noticeable ... [continued]

The post The Future Is Already Here, It’s Just Unevenly Distributed appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Projects in development expected to grow global capacity by nearly 50% amid growing concern over impact on planet

The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial intelligence, according to a new forecast.

This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions around the world, with projects in development expected to grow existing global gas capacity by nearly 50%, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found.

The US startup Terra Energy is expanding its subscription-based rooftop solar panel business in California, Florida, and Texas, the three hottest solar markets in the US.

The post Rooftop Solar Panels By Subscription: Up To 50% Savings On Electricity Bills appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: No finches yet and only a single thrush, but tuning into January’s sounds has revealed that nature is beginning to stir

If my teenage son hadn’t mentioned it one grey morning this week, I’m not sure I’d have noticed, having been too caught up in the January doldrums. But he was right: there’s a new fullness to the soundscape here on our urban housing estate. “The birds just sound louder,” he said, scanning the rooftops, “more enthusiastic.”

“Go on then, what are they?” he grinned, giving me permission to perform my party trick. I closed my eyes and listened. Sparrow. Robin. Wood pigeon. Wren. Blue tits – a bickering winter flock of them – and, there, the see-see-see of long-tailed tits.“Which one makes this sound?” he asked, and whistled a long, descending note like something falling from the sky. “They’re my favourite.” “Starling!” I said. Right on cue, one made that exact sound somewhere above us, confirming his perfect impression.