Interesting Ideas

Powerstock Common, Dorset: I’m hopeful that the mixed habitats here and bright weather will bring them out in their droves – and I’m not disappointed

The recent pulse of warm, sunny weather has encouraged butterflies to fly in large numbers in Dorset. They were everywhere when I visited Powerstock Common: the moment I opened the car door, a brimstone fluttered sulphur-yellow over the parking area, lifted on a stream of blackcap song.

Bright as butter in the sunshine, it’s possible that brimstones are the species that inspired the word “butterfly”. When this one settled on a hazel, its underwings merged green among the new leaves, the colours indicating it was a male. Females are much paler, sometimes almost white. Both sexes have a pair of browny-orange spots on their wings, which are foxed like the page edges of an old book.

Wastewater from nearly 40,000 people and businesses pumped straight into sea as territory still has no treatment plant

Raw sewage from nearly 40,000 people and businesses is being pumped straight into the sea because the British overseas territory of Gibraltar does not have, and has never had, a wastewater treatment plant.

For decades, untreated sewage has poured into the Mediterranean from the southern tip of the peninsula at Europa Point, where the government of Gibraltar says there are “high levels of natural dispersion”.

Exclusive: ‘Fish sludge’ in coastal waters now has nutrient levels equivalent to those in untreated effluent of country the size of Australia, report finds

Norwegian fish farms are filling fjords and other coastal waters with nutrient pollution equivalent to the raw sewage of tens of millions of people each year, a report has found.

Norway is the largest farmed salmon producer in the world, and nutrients in fish feed are excreted directly into coastal waters. Analysis from the Sunstone Institute found that Norwegian aquaculture released 75,000 tonnes of nitrogen, 13,000 tonnes of phosphorus and 360,000 tonnes of organic carbon in 2025.

Group that worked with AOC and Bernie Sanders seeks to counter claim that climate policy is politically toxic

Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: that’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives is arguing.

“The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy,” says a new policy platform from left-leaning thinktank Climate and Community Institute (CCI).

Researchers say 481-metre wave in fjord was triggered by rockslide linked to climate crisis

A mega tsunami in Alaska last year in a fjord visited by cruise ships is a stark warning of the risks of coastal rockslides and glacier retreat fueled by the climate crisis, a new study warns.

Scientists recorded the world’s second-tallest tsunami after it struck the Tracy Arm fjord in south-east Alaska last August after a massive rockslide around the toe of a glacier. The tsunami reached 481 metres (1,578ft) in height; by comparison the Eiffel Tower is 330 metres (1082ft).

With most major European cities well-served by trains and buses, bringing US transit up to par would cost $4.6tn

The only train station in Houston, the US’s fourth-largest city and one of the fastest-growing conurbations in the country, is a diminished, morose sight. Intercity trains arrive at this squat, shed-like Amtrak building, which cringes in the shadows of roaring highways, just three times a week.

That such a meager train station could ostensibly serve a metropolitan area of about 7 million people is a stark symbol of how the sprawling, car-dominated US has fallen behind cities around the world where people can rely on extensive, high-quality public transport to get around.

Two California electric utilities have moved to exit long-term contracts to buy power from Ivanpah, a unique first-of-its-kind utility-scale solar tower project that has delivered only around 70–80% of its projected annual generation since it began operating in 2014. The partners, which included Google, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Southern ... [continued]

The post Solar Experts Offer a Solution to Satisfy Both Sides in Ivanpah Decommissioning Battle appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Austrian capital mulls expanding tram network and park-and-ride car parks in effort to reduce private vehicle use

When Leonore Gewessler hops on the underground trains and street-level trams that run like clockwork across the breadth of Vienna, she appreciates the ease, affordability and time she “gets as a present” instead of idling in traffic. But Austria’s former climate and transport minister is also aware that cars still dominate the capital’s streets. She says good public transport is just the “precondition” to changing how people move around the city.

Vienna’s network of trains, trams and buses have long been the envy of other European cities – let alone car-centric North American ones – but automobiles are still used for a quarter of journeys. In other capitals famed for world-class public transport, such as London, Paris and Prague, even higher use of cars has frustrated doctors and campaigners demanding cleaner air and safer streets.

I first spotted the VinFast MPV 7 being delivered to a small dealership hidden inside a gasoline station in Sto Tomas, Batangas — a quiet, unassuming precursor to what has now become a full-scale national rollout. That early glimpse of the electric 7-seater in the provinces set the stage for ... [continued]

The post VinFast Scales Up In Asia As MPV 7 Electric 7-Seater Debuts In The Philippines appeared first on CleanTechnica.

LAS VEGAS — Today, a group of environmental, health, and environmental justice advocates hosted a press conference outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center during the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo to highlight the benefits of a rapid transition to electric trucks and call out greenwashing by truckmakers such as Volvo and Daimler, ... [continued]

The post Advocates Host Press Conference Outside Las Vegas Advanced Clean Transportation Expo, Calling for Faster Transition to Electric Trucks appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In the lead-up to the first-ever EU truck CO2 target in 2025, major truckmakers have come to increasingly prioritise their shareholders over making the necessary investments in their own clean transition. In doing so, they risk losing out to new competition. The European Union adopted its first CO2 standards for trucks ... [continued]

The post Truckmaking Giants Favour Shareholder Payouts Over-Investing into the Zero-Emission Transition appeared first on CleanTechnica.

High tech milling machines are among the tools at work at the Ford Electric Vehicle Development Center in Long Beach, California, where plans for a new, affordable EV are taking shape.

The post Ford Teases The Affordable EV Of The Future, But Where’s The Beef? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Glyphosate is currently sprayed on cereal and pulse crops to dessicate them and make them easier to harvest

A new trade deal with the EU could lead to restrictions on the use of the controversial weedkiller glyphosate on UK food crops.

The full-spectrum herbicide, which kills almost every plant it touches, is often sprayed on wheat, oats and other cereal and pulse crops shortly before harvest to desiccate them and make them easier to handle.

HARTFORD, Connecticut — The Connecticut Senate has passed S.B. 319, An Act Concerning the Use of Battery-Powered Leaf Blowers and Similar Equipment by the State and Municipalities. In response, Sierra Club Connecticut Organizer Julianna Larue released the following statement: “With half of Connecticut’s counties receiving failing air quality grades and communities ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club Connecticut Statement on State Senate Passage of S.B. 319 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Presidio in San Francisco is something of a gem with its open spaces and great views. For some period in its history, it served as a military base, but now it is home to nonprofit organizations, museums, and restaurants. The entire grounds cover 1,500 acres of land near the ... [continued]

The post Electric Buses Are Over Half Of National Park Site’s Bus Fleet appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In the UK capital, Bomb Crater Pond is full of wildlife, while scientists studying land obliterated by recent Russian blasts 1,500 miles away have seen ‘how quickly nature begins to heal itself’

In February 1945, towards the end of the second world war, a German V2 rocket struck Walthamstow Marshes in east London. The explosion tore a crater into the marshland. Left untouched, it slowly filled with water, sediment … and life. Today, this wartime scar has become a thriving pond.

“It’s small but it really punches above its weight,” says Luke Boyle, a ranger for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, as he kneels at the edge to examine aquatic plants sprouting their early spring shoots. “We can’t manage the hydrology here, so it is actually a vital part of the ecosystem – it supports a range of plants, insects and amphibians, more than you might expect,” he says.

Several trends emerged at Auto China, also known as the Beijing Auto Show. The number of new models and the speed that new technology was progressing was a bit overwhelming. However, one of the strongest and most interesting trends came from more established brands. The trend came into focus for ... [continued]

The post Legacy Automakers Pivot On Their Legacies At Auto China appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The author has become acutely aware of how the climate crisis is affecting women – and, in her new book, she argues that it’s time for mainstream western feminists to join the dots

Natasha Walter is halfway through explaining how she came to be politically radicalised when a young woman approaches the cafe table. We two middle-aged women look like “the most trustworthy people here,” she says, so could we watch her baby while she grabs a coffee? Like the solid citizen she is, Walter doesn’t take her eyes off the pushchair parked by the cafe steps for the next five minutes, though all we can see of the occupant is a tiny swinging foot. Sorry, where were we? Ah yes, the groundbreaking feminist writer who famously argued in her 1998 book The New Feminism that Margaret Thatcher had broken down barriers for women was explaining why she no longer really believes it’s possible to be rightwing and a feminist, as Theresa May or Amber Rudd insist they are.

“I can’t support just any woman getting into power, because I think a system that leaves too many women in the shadows – that condemns too many women to poverty or worse – is not a feminist system, and I don’t think you can call yourself a feminist if you’re going to prop up that system,” she says, eyes still glued to the baby for whom we are briefly responsible. “It’s not my kind of feminism.” Her younger self, she admits, would have thought her too uncompromising. But something in her seems to have hardened, facing a world she sees as threatened by the rise of far-right authoritarianism on one hand and a climate emergency on the other. “In the past I always wanted to be a broad church, I always thought any woman can be a feminist, but now I really am feeling … maybe I’ve been radicalised.”

Removing clear targets for the use of remote sensing would severely undermine its air quality benefits. Dear TRAN MEPs, In April 2025, the European Commission published its proposal to revise the EU Roadworthiness Package, which introduced binding requirements for Member States to use remote sensing technology to screen vehicle emissions and noise. The ... [continued]

The post NGOs & Transport Businesses Call for Maintaining Remote Sensing Provisions in the Roadworthiness Package appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I supervise the health of our condo community’s private, half-mile dune. Our dune height ranges anywhere from 12 to 14 feet, and the width varies along the entire dune but averages about 150 feet. Invasive wedelia — once upon a time, it was the landscaping choice of developers due to ... [continued]

The post To Glyphosate Or Not To Glyphosate — That Is The Question appeared first on CleanTechnica.