Interesting Ideas

Researchers racing to document Oceania’s last tropical glaciers found the remaining ‘eternal snow’ in Indonesia’s West Papua region has lost almost all its ice

• Mapping the last glaciers in Oceania – in pictures

An expedition to document the end days of the last tropical glaciers in Oceania has revealed sombre footage of “planetary destruction on fast-forward”.

The once-mighty ice sheets on Puncak Jaya, a mountain surrounded by dense rainforests in West Papua, Indonesia, have survived beyond projections they would disappear by 2026 but have shrunk to a fraction of their original size.

Like so many Britons, I usually consult a weather app before venturing out of the house – and often cancel plans if I don’t like what I see. Here’s what happened when I went cold turkey for a week

When I heard on the radio that more than half of British people would consider cancelling an outing if they saw a 40% chance of rain all day on their weather app, I felt seen. I, too, am a slave to my app. Not that I would ever make a decision based on one whole-day percentage. I pore over three-hourly breakdowns for chances of rain versus minutes of sunshine. If rain is on the cards, I check the probable millimetres. Less than one? I may well throw caution to the wind. Speaking of which, wind speed and direction must also be considered, along with overall and “feels like” temperatures. For the cherry on top, I’ll compare notes with a loved one’s app if they use a different one, quietly mistrusting theirs, and simmering in silent rage if theirs wins.

I’ll admit, though, that my compulsion to check my app (I long ago chose WeatherPro, which I knew nothing about, but liked its layout and name) is borderline neurotic; I fret over probabilities and outfit appropriateness, when I could simply step outside for real-time hyper-local accuracy. I can lose procrastinatory hours consulting long-range forecasts, or checking the weather in Melbourne (where my sister lives) and holiday destinations I have no immediate plans to visit.

The XPENG GX definitely excited our own Larry Evans at Auto China 2026, and analysts obsessively tracking vehicle sales in China think it’s going to be a big hit. Deutsche Bank analysts expect that orders for the XPENG GX will give XPENG enough of a boost that it will have ... [continued]

The post XPENG GX Popularity Jacks Up XPENG Orders To ~50,000 Vehicles In May? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, many Americans watched auto racing and attended automotive enthusiast events. The Indy 500 was held, the largest single-day sporting event in the world with over 300,000 live spectators. And, while the death of Kyle Busch put an emotional damper on the event and mother ... [continued]

The post EVs Answer Automotive Enthusiasm appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Surpassing all expectations, Colombia’s EV market is once again growing at explosive rates, with sales in April 2026 more than 300% above those in April 2025. BEV market share alone almost reached 20%, compared with 7.4% 12 months ago! The market has grown faster than even the most optimistic of ... [continued]

The post Colombia EV Sales Report: Sales Grow 316% in April, EVs Now +20% Market Share! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Albany, NY — New York lawmakers and the public were given their first look at the Transportation and Economic Development (TED) section of NY’s $268.5 billion state budget, mere hours before voting, concluding a secretive and one-sided negotiation process that delayed the State’s fiscal plan by nearly two months. Among ... [continued]

The post Last-Minute New York Budget Guts Climate Law & SEQRA appeared first on CleanTechnica.

SpaceX plans to go public next month. Will new investors see substantial gains or covering Elon's losses from his misadventures?

The post SpaceX IPO — Boon Or Boondoggle? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Calaminarian grassland is a rare habitat where plants thrive in soils contaminated by heavy metals. But should these toxic meadows be protected or allowed to fade away?

At first, the small purple flowers are hard to spot in the weak May sunshine. Slowly the drifts of delicate mountain pansies, along with the white rosettes of alpine pennycress, begin to jump out, scattered across an area little bigger than a football pitch, on the banks of the River Allen in Northumberland.

This is a pocket of calaminarian grassland, an increasingly rare habitat where specialist plants called metallophytes have adapted to live in soils deeply contaminated by heavy metals, the legacy of more than 1,000 years of lead mining.

The state saw 33 tornadoes last year and severe flooding as researchers say links to climate change are undeniable

The tornado hit west Ann Arbor at 1.45am on 15 April, passing through Veterans Memorial park, where it knocked several mature oak trees and ripped up baseball field fences before setting its sights on a local ice rink.

“It came up through the parking lot and, in that time, the pressure differential between the tornado and the air inside the rink collapsed the wall,” said Scott Spooner, a manager at Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation.

Tourists and locals in Madrid, Paris, London, Dublin and Berlin share their experiences of the unseasonable May temperatures

In recent days across parts of Europe, temperatures have soared, heat records have been broken and spring has felt more like the height of summer. Météo France, the French national weather service, has attributed this to a “heat dome”, with warmth held in place by a high-pressure weather front that has produced temperatures more than 10C above what used to be usual for this time of year.

Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather around the world, driving deadly extremes that can strike at abnormal times in unusual places and claim lives.

Things have been a bit dicey in Europe and globally when it comes to energy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to an existential energy conundrum on the continent. The European Union (EU) had been trying to “play nice” with Russia for years and make deals that involved buying Russian fossil ... [continued]

The post France to Double Share of Its Electricity That’s Domestically Produced by 2030 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

To help support EV sales in the US, the advocacy organization Electric Four All  bought billboard space near gas stations in 15 major cities over the Memorial Day weekend.

The post When Will EV Sales Pick Up In The US? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

From gas station lines to gas station scams, I got a bit of an unexpected education on gas car inconveniences and risks this week. Inconvenient Lines at the Gas Station We were driving by a Costco the other day, and I couldn’t believe the lines of gas cars at a ... [continued]

The post The Inconvenience & Risks of Gas Cars appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Jay Morris denies experts’ claims that he violated ethics rules over land deals near the site of Meta’s Hyperion datacenter

This story is from Floodlight, a non-profit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action

For more than two years, John “Jay” Morris, a Louisiana state senator, helped pave the way for Meta to build one of the world’s largest datacenters, called Hyperion, in Richland Parish.

Experts say climate change linked to 10% rise in salmonella antibiotic resistance genes between 1940 and 2023

The climate crisis is accelerating a global increase in antibiotic resistance that poses a serious threat to human health, experts have said as figures show a rise in salmonella antibiotic resistant genes.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the fastest-growing threats to global health. It can affect people of any age in any country and already kills more than 1 million people a year, according to estimates.

High unemployment and a lack of support mean life can be tough in Grimsby, but 19-year-old Cohen is determined to make the best of life in this coastal town

It’s mid-afternoon in the Lincolnshire seaside town of Cleethorpes and Cohen is sitting in the back seat of a car putting on an Easter bunny outfit. A group of teenagers nearby stare in amusement. Cohen isn’t fazed. He is hoping we can take some new photographs that he can use to advertise his mascot business for the upcoming holidays.

Cohen, 19, lives with his parents a couple of miles down the road in neighbouring Grimsby and set up Co Co Mascots last year as one of his many attempts to find work. People can hire him in one of the outfits for birthday parties, events and doorstep surprises for children. He’s done a few paid gigs so far, which has been a boost for his confidence, he says, but what he really wants is a permanent job.

Cohen, who is looking for a permanent job, makes money as a mascot at birthday parties and events

Swanage, Dorset: While the seabirds here make the headlines, my eye is drawn to the unassuming rock pipit and its accelerating song

It’s a stunning evening for a walk at Durlston Country Park. The position of its headland on the south-west coast of England makes it a fantastic place to watch bird migration in action. As I walk along the coastal path, enjoying the panoramic sea views, barn swallows arrive from across the Channel.

Below is a cacophony of sound coming from the cliff edges; this part of the Jurassic Coast is home to a breeding colony of seabirds, with last year’s survey recording 1,377 guillemots, 179 razorbills, 12 fulmars and just six puffins.

Energy, retail, transportation, food, and other corporate sectors are backing away from their original sustainability goals. For example, US automakers have announced tens of billions of dollars in losses attributable to their EV investments, but many of them had lobbied vigorously for rolling back vehicle emissions regulations. The refusal to ... [continued]

The post Why Is There Such A Male Fascination With Fossil Fuels? It’s Called Petromasculinity appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Uber and Lyft drivers in Massachusetts are tired of being taken advantage of, and are thus diverging from the long-term trend in the USA away from worker unions. Drivers for Uber and Lyft in The Baked Bean State have decided to combine forces for better pay and conditions by unionizing, ... [continued]

The post Uber & Lyft Drivers Create 1st US Ridesharing Union In Massachusetts appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Investigation finds number of dairy farms where cows cannot go outside has more than doubled since 2015

There has been a huge rise in factory-style dairy farming of “battery cows” in the UK as farmers struggle with increasing costs and face selling milk at a loss.

The number of intensive dairy farms that permanently confine some of their cattle indoors has more than doubled in the past 10 years, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) has found. Data suggests there are now at least 180 dairy farms where cows have no access to the outdoors, up from about 70 in 2015.