Interesting Ideas

Sixty years after the discovery of a colony of Juan Fernández fur seals, previously thought to be extinct, a landmark agreement extends ‘no take’ zone around the wildlife-rich archipelago

Six decades ago, pioneering oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle made a bittersweet discovery while diving off Chile’s oceanic islands with the US National Science Foundation vessel, the Anton Bruun. She found the remains of a baby fur seal, one of the world’s most isolated aquatic mammals.

Endemic to the Juan Fernández archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean, and once prized for its fur and meat, the species, Arctocephalus philippii, was believed to have been hunted to extinction in the 19th century. But, Earle said: “A baby must have a mum and dad somewhere.”

Pioneering oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle. Photograph: Andy Mann/Blue Marine Foundation

Improvements in batteries are almost a daily occurrence, as sodium-ion batteries are poised for use in more applications.

The post Sodium & Quantum Batteries Move The Transition To Electricity Forward appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) previewed the Urban Cruiser EV earlier this year before formally pricing it last week, positioning it as its most affordable fully electric offering. At P2.135 million (~$38,000), it undercuts the bZ4x launched last December at P2.699 million (~$44,700), offering a clearer signal of how the world’s ... [continued]

The post Is The Urban Cruiser Toyota’s Placeholder As It Pivots To BEVs In The Philippines? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The EU’s reluctance to replace petrol cars and gas boilers keep it hooked on foreign fuels, say industry groups

Europe has made “staggering progress” in producing clean power but neglected efforts to phase out fuel-burning machines, the head of an industry group said as the global oil crisis deepens.

Adrian Hiel, director of the Electrification Alliance, said the EU has “radically transformed” its power supply and must now focus on getting “more electricity into the stuff we use every day”.

Perovskite solar cells can be manufactured locally in Europe and elsewhere, providing a buffer against global supply chain disruptions such as the one occurring right now.

The post A Fresh Wave Of Perovskite Solar Cell Activity, Just In Time For The Next Oil Crisis appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In one corner, clean energy champion Ed Miliband. In the other, residents – and Reform politicians – outraged at plans for more large-scale solar farms in Lincolnshire than anywhere else in the UK

As night descends on the grand offices of Lincolnshire county council, everything appears orderly and calm. Paintings of long-forgotten councillors and dignitaries stare out into an empty drawing room. The council chamber is silent and dark. Bored receptionists glance at their phones while a handful of admin staff hunch over glowing screens. But a rebellion is brewing in the office of the council leader, Sean Matthews, who took charge last May, when Reform replaced the Conservative old guard. The affable former royal protection officer is plotting an apparently radical campaign of civil disobedience against a series of giant solar farms planned for Lincolnshire.

Despite a quarter of a century in the Metropolitan police, Matthews is willing to break the law to stop solar developers. He is planning to lie down in front of the bulldozers. “They can arrest me – I’ve arrested plenty of people,” he says, leaning forward on a sofa. “It’s much bigger than me and my criminal record. For goodness sake, it’s the future of the county, it’s the future of our land. I am passionate about that and I will do what I can.”

Tesla Robotaxi in San Francisco is cheaper than Waymo/Uber/Lyft, offers smooth comparable rides, but has longer waits and rare safety-driver interventions. Unsupervised rollout feels near with upcoming FSD update. Here at CleanTechnica, we have written a lot over the years on Tesla’s long path to an unsupervised robotaxi service. Most ... [continued]

The post Tesla Bull Spends 4 Days In San Francisco Testing The Robotaxi appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Residents reported headaches, eye and skin irritation and breathing difficulties as Israeli bombings blanketed Tehran with pollutants

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Satellite images of Tehran show toxic fires caused by Israeli bombings on oil depots were still burning days after the strikes, which have caused fears of serious health complications for millions of residents in the Iranian capital.

Clouds of smoke from bombings on 7 March on multiple facilities blanketed the city with pollutants ranging from soot to oil particles to sulphur dioxide. Hours later, a passing storm showered Tehran with poisonous, oil-filled rain.

A survey has revealed the vast array of wildlife – some never seen before – living within the south-east Asian country’s karst ecosystems. The work was led by international wildlife conservation charity Fauna & Flora in collaboration with Cambodia’s environment ministry and field experts

• I discovered three new geckos in Cambodia’s limestone caves – and that’s not all we found

This is the second of three articles seeking to contextualise the failure of the West to grasp or even understand or manifest technological change over the past 15 years. The touchstone used here, and in our previous article, is “New Energy Vehicles” (plugin vehicles). The first article focussed primarily on ... [continued]

The post How The West Lost The Automotive Industry And Its Mojo, Part 2 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

When I first relocated to southeast Florida, neighbors invited me to watch the buoyant manatees lounge and dive in the marina area. Oysters clung to the Indian River’s shorelines and dock areas. Fish jumped around us as we kayaked through the mangrove channels. At sunset, we’d bike down the road ... [continued]

The post NOAA Is Restoring A Pristine Estuary — With Help From A Lot Of Friends appeared first on CleanTechnica.

State of the Climate report finds Earth’s energy has moved dangerously out of balance, with oceans absorbing vast majority of trapped heat

Our home planet is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies, the World Meteorological Organization has warned.

The United Nations body confirmed 2015 to 2025 were the hottest 11 years ever measured, but a still bleaker message was that the rising temperature experienced by humans on the surface was only 1% of the faster-accumulating heat in the wider Earth system.

The whole ecosystem inside a cave feeds off guano, dead bats, or any dead animals on the ground. It’s not for the faint-hearted

It can be daunting entering a cave. It is an underground world that possibly hasn’t been explored before. The first smell that hits you is guano (or bat poo). Some of these caves host millions of bats – you can hear them chirping above, hanging in the darkness, and occasionally flying around. It always seems like night-time inside a cave because it’s pitch black.

The walls are covered in interesting creatures such as tailless whip scorpions, which look like a cross between a spider and crab (they look dangerous, but are not), as well as millipedes and centipedes. The whole ecosystem feeds off guano, dead bats, or any dead animals on the ground. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship has confirmed what e-racing aficionados call a “seismic shift” in the competitive manufacturer’s landscape as the series prepares for the transition to Gen4 technology. Just three days ago, German automaker Opel announced its official entry into the championship for Season 13, coinciding with ... [continued]

The post Opel Joins Formula E appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In a time when US politics and public policy do not support electric vehicles in the United States, it’s a little unbelievable that public EV charging infrastructure continues to expand quickly anyway. Part of the expansion is because Biden-era EV charging funding (from the NEVI program) was eventually released to ... [continued]

The post Nearly 1,000 EV Charging Bays Available At IONNA Charging Hubs appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Reva was never meant to compete with gasoline cars. When it appeared at the turn of the millennium, it didn’t promise speed, long range, or highway capability. It offered something far more radical for its time: a small, lightweight electric car designed specifically for dense urban life, one that ... [continued]

The post The Tiny Indian EV That Could (& Which Proved The Future Was Plug-In) appeared first on CleanTechnica.

At the end of January, I bought a Silverado EV. I didn’t get the top-of-the-line RST truck with the 200+ kWh battery pack, instead opting for the more affordable LT trim with the ~170 kWh pack. I recently did some towing testing, which I wrote about in my last article, ... [continued]

The post Silverado EV: The First 1,000 Miles appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Woodcocks and pochard, pintail and goldeneye ducks among threatened species protected by proposals

Hunters will be banned from shooting a rare and beautiful duck under new proposals to halt the decline of six British wild birds.

The new rules would restrict the shooting of species including the distinctive woodcock, and the striking pintail, goldeneye and pochard ducks, all of which are classed as under threat and have seen their populations fall sharply in recent years.

Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland is ferret-free after £4.5m five-year partnership led by RSPB NI

Predatory feral ferrets have been removed from an island for the first time ever, in a boost for Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony.

Rathlin Island is ferret-free after a £4.5m five-year partnership led by RSPB NI involving islanders, charities, volunteers and a red labrador called Woody.

Survivors describe how rangers and staff were targeted by an armed group during a raid on DRC’s national park earlier this month

Nearby Congolese soldiers had received warnings of the attack in the morning. But the soldiers did not arrive until late in the evening, long after the killings were over.

It happened before dawn on Tuesday 3 March, as a dozen rangers at Upemba national park headquarters were being briefed by their commander before the day’s routine anti-poaching patrol. At 5.40am machine-gun fire began to rattle out of the surrounding darkness.