Interesting Ideas

America’s family farmers are facing mounting challenges. Input costs like fertilizer and diesel are going up while international markets recede and commodity prices crater. Despite these challenges, American farmers are resilient and resourceful. They make decisions every day that balance risk, reward, and long-term stewardship. They adapt to volatile commodity ... [continued]

The post Farmers Are Choosing Solar to Maintain their Farms. Localities Shouldn’t Take Away That Choice. appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A high point of my recent trip to China was the opportunity to experience XPENG’s VLA 2.0 system on the Next P7 Ultra. I had previously sampled the advanced ADAS system on a P7+ in November, which was already impressive. It can be easy to get caught up in the ... [continued]

The post XPENG P7 With VLA 2.0: A Sporty Drive That Can Confidently Drive You appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Hood Hill, North Yorkshire: From Satanic slip-ups to postwar plane crashes, stories have accumulated on this summit, just one part of an already rich landscape

There’s something special about Hood Hill, I tell my son Lochy as we begin climbing. It’s not just the pleasing symmetry, pointy summit and epic view. Not just that it has intriguing medieval earthworks and weird erratic boulders dumped long ago by wandering glaciers.

It’s more that this hill, and the moor-edge landscape it is part of – including Whitestone Cliff, Lake Gormire, Roulston Scar, various caves, a gap known as the Devil’s Stride and the more recent Kilburn White Horse –seem to spawn stories. We’ve come today on the trail of one recorded by the folklorist Thomas Gill in 1852.

Washington, DC — Yesterday, U.S. Steel announced it will invest nearly $2 billion to build a direct reduced iron (DRI) facility at Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas. The DRI will provide a cleaner input to feed into the company’s electric arc furnaces that produce steel. Nippon Steel, the parent company of ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club: Nippon Investment in DRI in the South a Good First Step, Must Not Overlook Greening Midwest Steel appeared first on CleanTechnica.

At world-first Santa Marta climate meeting, delegates say it was ‘euphoric’ to finally be focusing on concrete solutions

After a landmark climate meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia, where nearly 60 countries gathered to work out how to end the production and use of planet-heating fossil fuels, what have we learned?

A Canadian social enterprise hopes to help solve the urgent need for retrofits and shortage of skilled workers

John Mava was looking for work when a construction project started behind his house. When he visited the site and saw how different construction was in Canada compared with his native Nigeria, his interest was piqued.

“I said it would be great for me to have knowledge about this,” said Mava, who learned that in Canada, construction uses timber rather than bricks and has a focus on the environment.

Observers say pressure on IMO negotiations appears to be linked to countries that have invested heavily in gas

About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the strait of Hormuz, a strip of sea less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, before it was in effect closed by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which sent the price of oil soaring and left an estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 vessels stranded.

Their plight has shone a spotlight on the complex and dirty relationship between shipping and the fossil fuel industry. The sector is one of the most polluting, with most ship engines fuelled by what has been called the dregs of the oil refining process, heavy and carbon-intensive diesel too filthy for any other purpose. Shipping produces about 3% of global greenhouse gases, a portion set to rise as trade globalises further.

The fossil fuel transition moved forward this week at a conference in Colombia that brought nations in search of solutions together.

The post In Colombia, 57 Nations Chart A Path To A Future Without Fossil Fuels appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Elusive nightingale ‘doing well’ at Northward Hill, Kent, but experts cite concerns around loss of habitat

The dawn chorus at RSPB Northward Hill in Kent is a riot of sound: the melodic robin, the two-tone cuckoo, the whitethroat’s scratchy warble. Even the garbling geese and mooing cows from the neighbouring Thames marshes add to the symphony.

But in late April one energetic singer hogs the limelight. For a few weeks after arriving from West Africa, the nightingale spends the night – and early morning – in complex song. As it searches for a mate and marks its territory, its song is at times as sweet and tuneful as a soul singer, at others as frantic as a car alarm.

With record temperatures bringing increased numbers of seals and dolphins, scientists say large predators could return to UK waters

Last year water temperatures in the North Sea reached record levels, with average surface temperatures a balmy 11.6C, the warmest since measurements started in 1969. And as waters continue to warm, a new study suggests great white sharks could start prowling British waters.

Olivier Lambert, from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and colleagues studied whale fossils recovered from North Sea sediments dated to around 5m years ago. North Sea waters were warmer at this time and were home to several species of whale and shark. Fossilised tooth fragments embedded in the whale skulls revealed that sharks had feasted on them.

Birdwatching no longer niche, old-fashioned pastime, says RSPB as research shows 47% increase in hobby since 2018

Birdwatching is the second fastest growing hobby for generation Z after jewellery making, according to a multiyear study of more than 24,000 people.

Almost 750,000 gen Zers (16 to 29-year-olds) in Britain regularly enjoy watching birds, a -1,088% increase since 2018, according to research by Fifty5Blue published by the RSPB.

Modeling Advancements Could Help Developers Build More Robust, Seaworthy Devices Wave energy technologies can provide reliable, local power for autonomous underwater vehicles, and at-sea applications across U.S. coastal regions, especially where traditional energy supply is limited or costly. Although some wave energy devices have demonstrated promising performance, most are still ... [continued]

The post Riding the Ocean’s Data appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Sacramento, CA — In a written decision today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) denied a SoCalGas application that would have charged customers $266 million to fund the controversial Angeles Link Project pipeline. This decision means that SoCalGas will either drop the project entirely or require shareholders to pay to develop the risky ... [continued]

The post CPUC Protects Ratepayers, Rejects SoCalGas’ Attempt to Charge Customers for Hydrogen Pipeline appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Washington, DC — Today, the nation’s largest and most influential environmental advocacy organization weighed in on the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais that will further erode the landmark Voting Rights Act and dilute the voting power of minorities. In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford released the following ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club Statement on Supreme Court Ruling to Gut the Voting Rights Act appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Between the week ending March 20 and the week ending April 24, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a total of 17.5 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), according to data in our Weekly Petroleum Status Report. DOE released 7.1 million barrels in the ... [continued]

The post US DOE Has Released 17.5 Million Barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve since March appeared first on CleanTechnica.

BEVs reach 22% market share! Thanks to a number of factors (new, cheaper and/or better models, record high gas prices, mass arrival of Chinese models, etc.), EVs have risen to record highs in Europe, with over half a million plugin vehicles being registered in Europe in March, 349,000 of them ... [continued]

The post Record Month for EV Sales in Europe! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

In this week’s newsletter: the European pollen season is now up to two weeks longer than it was in the 90s – just one more way global heating is causing millions to suffer

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Here’s a confession that may alarm faithful readers of this newsletter: I am an environment reporter who does not love nature.

Before I get cancelled, yes, I do care about the fate of the natural world – scientists are clear that wrecking it hurts us – but the weird wonders of wildlife have always occupied a smaller place in my heart than those of most people I interview. One reason for that, I realised last week, is that hay fever has seriously dampened the pleasure I get from ambling through forests or squelching through wetlands.

BP profits more than double as oil and gas prices soar in Iran war

Inside Chornobyl: 40 years after disaster, nuclear site still at risk in Russia’s war

Nordic heatwave part of record year that saw temperatures scorch most of Europe, report finds

In fiscal year 2026, Tahara Plant became the first Toyota plant to attain carbon neutrality. At the genba, a “One Tahara” spirit could be seen throughout, from large-scale equipment initiatives to small, on-the-ground improvements. Tahara Plant is located in Tahara City, Aichi. About 9,000 people work at the plant, which ... [continued]

The post The First Toyota Plant to Go Carbon Neutral: “One Tahara” appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Research conducted at 2022 Commonwealth Games found catering and fireworks were main causes of pollution

This summer, large-scale sporting events will take place, including the men’s football World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but research reveals that such events have unexpected air pollution impacts.

About 6,000 athletes from 72 counties and nearly 3 million people attended the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, making it the UK’s largest sporting event since the 2012 London Olympics. More than 300,000 spectators went to the Alexander Stadium for the athletics events, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.