Interesting Ideas

Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worried

During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not. Free from pollution controls, the gas-fired turbines that power the world’s biggest AI supercomputer were pumping invisible fumes into the Tennessee sky.

“It was jaw-dropping,” said Wilson, a former oil and gas worker from Texas who has documented methane releases for more than a decade and estimates xAI’s Colossus datacentre was spewing more of the planet-heating gas than a large power plant. “Just an unbelievable amount of pollution.”

The US attack on Venezuela presages a strategic realignment and the end of the rules based system created after World War II.

The post In Venezuela, It’s All About The Oil appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Other firms are taking advantage of Tesla’s sales slump, while technological advances mean that glitches are being left in the rear-view mirror

In another era, before Elon Musk bought Twitter, changed its name to X to mark the spot of its descent into barbarism, honed Grok, a generator of far-right propaganda, swung behind Donald Trump and made what appeared to be a Nazi salute, I already knew he was a wrong ’un. The year was 2019, and I was test-driving a Tesla; while I was ambling off the forecourt, the PR told me jauntily that the windscreen was made of a material that would protect the driver from biohazards. I hit the brakes. “You what? What kind of biohazard? Like, a war?” She misconstrued me, thinking I intended to go and find some toxic waste site to see if it worked, and said: “I’m not sure it’s operational in the press fleet.”

That wasn’t my question: rather, what kind of a world was Tesla preparing for? One so unstable that an average (though affluent) private citizen would do well to prepare for a chemical weapons attack? What model of consumption was this, that the rich used their wealth to prepare for the mayhem their resource-capture would unleash, while the less-rich prepared slightly less well? Was Musk trying to bring to market the apocalypse planning that elites had already embarked on? Because if he was, then it was possible that he was not a great guy. And that turned out to be correct.

Exclusive: Critics say removing battery installation requirement will reduce amount homebuyers save on energy bills

Ministers are poised to allow homes in England to be built without carbon-cutting technology in what experts have said is a climbdown after pressure from housebuilders.

The future homes standard (FHS), due to be published in January, will regulate how all homes are built and is expected to enforce tough new regulations such as mandating solar panels on nearly all houses and high standards of insulation and heat pumps in most cases.

Mean temperature for year was 10.09C, surpassing 2022 record, and 1,648.5 hours of sunshine were recorded

2025 was the UK’s warmest and sunniest year on record, the Met Office has confirmed.

The UK’s three hottest years on record have now all been in this decade, which meteorologists say is proof of a rapidly changing climate. All of the top 10 warmest years have happened in the past two decades.

When Donald Trump’s professional kidnappers snatched up Nicolás and Cilia Maduro, there was immediately confusion and a trove of questions about what was going on, why, and where it was all going to lead. I put out a few theories on what was driving it all for Donald Trump. Those ... [continued]

The post Theories on Venezuela Continue, But Is Greenland Next? And Who Else? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Tebay, Cumbria: Small farms like ours contribute to society, but we need help to survive. A huge cloud has lifted over our future

Just before Christmas I attended a farmers’ conference near Penrith, which included a presentation on the inheritance tax rules for agricultural land. An accountant worked through an example of a typical hill farm like ours: the bill worked out as £59,000 every year for 10 years.

Between the farm and our off‑farm jobs, we can’t generate that kind of profit, so this terrified me – we didn’t know what would happen to the farm if we had to pay that bill. We sought advice from a solicitor, but, thank goodness, there was a surprise announcement from the government on 23 December that the threshold on land and assets was raised from £1m to £2.5m.

Extreme heat and drought has destroyed 70% of Jordan’s olive crop, endangering livelihoods of 80,000 families and a centuries-old tradition

Abu Khaled al-Zoubi, 67, walks slowly through his orchard in Irbid, northern Jordan, his footsteps kicking up dust from the parched earth beneath centuries-old olive trees. He stops at a gnarled trunk, its bark split and peeling from months of unrelenting heat.

He points out that the branches should be sagging under the weight of ripening fruit, but instead they stretch upward, nearly bare, with only a few shrivelled olives clinging to the withered stems.

The monsoon season is crucial for agriculture, making up 80% of annual rainfall, but also extremely destructive

January brings torrential rain to south-east Asia – more than 250mm fell in just two days in Singapore last year. This is because of the monsoon, a pattern of wind and rainfall, the name of which stems from the Arabic word for “season”.

The monsoon is sometimes described in terms of a sea breeze, in which the wind reverses direction in the morning and evening as the relative temperature of land and sea change, blowing out to sea at first and then inland as the land cools.

Bird organisations say more research on the species needed to control impact on other wildlife

In the past 20 years, the soundscape in the ancient wild, rolling landscape of Richmond Park has been transformed. Once you would have heard the chirrup of the stonechat, the chirp of the greater spotted woodpecker or the song of the skylark. Today, the auditory power of one bird dominates.

The bright green ring-necked parakeet increased 25-fold from 1994-2023 in the UK. They are still mainly based in the skies, parks, and woodlands around London and suburban areas in the south east, but in recent years they have made their way to northern cities including Manchester and Newcastle.

More than half of China’s new vehicle sales are plugin vehicle sales — 54% across the first 11 months of 2025 (33% BEVs alone). It seems like a blink of an eye from China crossing 20% plugin vehicle sales to crossing 50% plugin vehicle sales. The country just flew from ... [continued]

The post How Long Until China Is At 90% Plugin Vehicle Sales? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Colla Indigenous people claim Rio Tinto’s plans to extract the key mineral will harm fragile ecosystems and livelihoods

Miriam Rivera Bordones tends her goats in a dusty paddock in the russet mountains of Chile’s Atacama desert. She also keeps chickens and has planted quince and peach trees and grapevines, which are watered by a stream winding down the hills towards the Indigenous community of Copiapó.

But now the huge British-Australian mining multinational Rio Tinto has signed a deal to extract lithium, the “white gold” of the energy transition, from a salt flat farther up the mountains, and she fears the project could affect the water sources of several communities in the area.

If you haven’t had a chance to learn about Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), I recommend that you slow down your reading when you see his name in the headlines. As he champions policies to uphold US leadership in the world, he works to protect our planet in a changing climate ... [continued]

The post “You Can’t Reduce Carbon Emissions When You Can Pollute For Free” — Sheldon Whitehouse appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Is AI a blessing or a curse? We are trying to address that question but finding it hard going. The topic is polarizing in a way that few others are. In Part One of this series, some comments extolled the technology, sweeping aside objections with a blanket, “It’s just another ... [continued]

The post AI And Its Discontents — Part Two appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The story of the day is an obvious one. Making sense of it is not as easy. Donald Trump and his merry gang of peacemakers, chasing the Nobel Peace Prize, have bombed Venezuela and abducted its president and his wife, Nicolás and Cilia Maduro. Reportedly, the US Army’s Delta Force ... [continued]

The post Oil Colonialism In 2025? WTF Is Going On? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

CATL’s batteries and energy management systems are already operating in roughly 900 ships and vessels, a figure that on its own should reframe how maritime decarbonization is discussed. Shipping is conservative for structural reasons tied to safety, long asset lifetimes, and unforgiving certification regimes, so deployment at this scale signals ... [continued]

The post From Riverboats To Global Ports: CATL Is Winning The Shipping Electrification Race appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I think everyone expected a very bad 4th quarter for electric vehicles in the United States. With the $7,500 US EV tax credit expiring on the last day of the 3rd quarter, people flocked to dealers and websites to buy electric cars before October 1 arrived. People who might have ... [continued]

The post Yup, Kia EV Sales Drop More Than 50% In December appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Like the proverbial bull in the china shop, US President Donald Trump spent his first year back in office the way any twice-impeached, convicted felon would — namely, trying to distract public attention away from his relationship with the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, nothing seems to stick. Demolishing ... [continued]

The post Everything You Need To Know About Venezuelan Oil In One Word: Jeffrey Epstein appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Volkswagen has decided to throw a lot more buttons and dials back in front of driver’s eyes for its upcoming cheap EV. The company says it is doing this in response to customer feedback, but I’m very curious to see if customers really do end up liking this or if ... [continued]

The post VW Unveils New Old-Style Cockpit for ID. Polo appeared first on CleanTechnica.

London predicted to be the first UK city to go diesel-free, largely because of the ultra-low emission zone

Battery electric cars are poised to overtake diesels on Great Britain’s roads by 2030, according to analysis that suggests London will be the first UK city to go diesel-free.

The number of diesel cars on Great Britain’s roads in June had fallen to 9.9m in June last year, 21% below its peak of 12.4m vehicles, according to analysis by New AutoMotive, a thinktank focused on the transition to electric cars. Electric car sales are still growing rapidly, albeit more slowly than manufacturers had expected.