Interesting Ideas

Enthusiasts say mycology offers connection, nourishment and a deeper tie to the land – and the African diaspora

On her typical walk in the woods in Newton, Massachusetts, something stopped Maria Pinto in her tracks. She spotted what appeared to be a glowing yellow figure with a metallic sheen among the pine needles on the ground. It was the first time Pinto was enthralled by a mushroom – the American yellow fly agaric, a poisonous fungus that is relatively common where Pinto lives in Massachusetts.

“It forced me down on my knees to examine it further, because it didn’t look real,” Pinto, a naturalist and writer, said. “It looked like it was from another dimension.” On that day in 2013, she captured the mushroom from dozens of angles on her phone.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Sales of electric cars in Nordic countries are strong, with Norway and Denmark leading and Sweden and Finland following.

The post New Record For Electric Car Sales In Nordic Countries In April appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Thames at Ham designated as one of 13 new swimming areas across England to be monitored for water quality

The first designated bathing water area on the River Thames in London will welcome swimmers for the official start of the bathing season on Friday as one of 13 new monitored swimming areas across England.

The Thames at Ham, in south-west London, has been designated as a new river bathing water area after campaigners gathered evidence to show thousands of people use the river for swimming throughout the year.

Canvey Island foreshore, Essex

East Beach at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset

Falcon Meadow, Bungay, Suffolk

Granville Parade Beach, Sandgate, Kent

Little Shore, Amble, Northumberland

New Brighton Beach (east), Merseyside

Newton and Noss Creeks, Devon

Pangbourne Meadow, Berkshire

Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Salisbury, Wiltshire

River Dee at Sandy Lane, Chester, Cheshire

River Fowey in Lostwithiel, Cornwall

River Swale in Richmond, Yorkshire

River Thames at Ham and Kingston, Greater London

While listening to the technical discussions at XPENG presentations and press conferences, I started to see the people behind the technology. While we can get caught up in the technical details, all the progress that we see comes from human ideas and the hard work of teams of people. Every ... [continued]

The post XPENG’s Human Approach To Technology: Part 1 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Washington, D.C. — Today, Sierra Club and Earthjustice presented oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the legal challenge against the Department of Energy’s illegal application of Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. In May 2025, DOE claimed there was an “energy emergency” and forced the ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club & Earthjustice Argue Against Illegal Coal Plant Extensions in Court appeared first on CleanTechnica.

While there are still days the Thames is so dirty even dogs avoid it, steps are being taken to restore public waterways

Some people think we are odd for swimming in the Thames. “Isn’t it cold?” they ask with a shiver, like they are the ones who just took the plunge. Er, yes, that’s the whole point. Cold water ignites the central nervous system and reboots the mind.

“Isn’t it dirty?” they ask. Yes, sometimes, particularly when it’s rained. Then we don’t get in the Thames, we get in a rage instead, taking contamination measurements and signing petitions challenging the behaviour of the water company that spews sewage into the river.

Following the theme of the week — Chinese EV producers expanding rapidly around the world — we have another story of a Chinese EV company opening up bigger pathways abroad. Stellantis and Leapmotor have had a partnership helping each other, and that’s expanding. Part of this is about expanding Stellantis’ ... [continued]

The post Leapmotor Gets Bigger Avenue Into Europe — And Beyond appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Plug-in balcony solar systems make it easy for homeowners and renters to install their own solar panels and offset the cost of electricity from the grid.

The post Trump’s Fossil Fuel Fantasy Wilts Under Balcony Solar Pressure appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In this week’s newsletter: The public stranding of a young humpback exposes tensions between animal rights activism and other choices around biodiversity

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Timmy the whale is lost at sea, presumed dead.

In normal circumstances, the loss of a young humpback whale would be a sad yet unremarkable part of the circle of life. Dead whales help sustain thousands of marine species – and are part of the global carbon cycle.

Smuggled in syringes: how Nairobi became a nexus for the black market in giant harvester ants

Don’t reach for the bug spray: scientists find insects may feel pain after crickets nurse sore antennae

Labour must fulfil promise to introduce clean air act, charities urge

I just saw the following headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Honda’s Never Faced a Crisis Like This—and a Comeback Won’t Be Easy.” The subheading is as follows: “The Japanese automaker reported a $2.7 billion loss amid EV whiplash in the U.S., its biggest market.” My first thought was basically ... [continued]

The post EV Marketing Failure in USA — and a Honda & Auto Industry Financial Crisis appeared first on CleanTechnica.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rolling back protections that stop coal-burning power plants from dumping toxic wastewater—including arsenic, mercury, selenium, and lead—from coal ash waste landfills into U.S. waterways. The discharge of coal ash wastewater has been an issue at Iowa coal plants, including in Sioux City on ... [continued]

The post Iowa Waterways at Risk as EPA Allows More Toxic Waste from Coal Plants appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Washington, D.C. — Today, Sierra Club and Earthjustice presented oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the legal challenge against the Department of Energy’s (DOE) illegal application of Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. “The Sierra Club will not stand by and let the administration illegally ... [continued]

The post In Court, Sierra Club & Earthjustice Argue Against the Illegal Coal Plant Extensions that are Increasing Hoosiers’ Bills appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Cranbrook, Kent: The swarm has gathered in a plum tree, looking for a new home. And I have just the place

There comes this moment in May when I’m still anticipating the fresh green of spring, but looking up at the oak see it in a lustreless summer hue. A little rain would renew its sheen, but it’s been dry for weeks and there is no reprieve from this fleeting sense of loss.

Abruptly, there comes a noise, a rising hum almost mechanical in tone, but as I look for the contraption responsible, I see instead a mass of insects flowing over the line of hawthorns. The honeybee swarm swirls in a cloud before the queen, imperceptibly landing, triggering a leisurely implosion. Guided by pheromones, thousands of worker bees join her to form a solid ball, hanging precariously from the twig of a plum tree.

With Punta Marina residents loving or loathing the incomers, ‘peacock rangers’ have been appointed to defuse tensions

Federico Bruni was sitting on a bench, eating a piadina romagnola (flatbread sandwich) and minding his own business, when a peacock strutted up in the hope of a few crumbs. High-pitched squeals emanated from the direction of a disused military barracks across the road. “That would be the call to love,” Bruni said. “The male peacocks are courting the female ones – we’re in peak mating season.”

As another couple of peacocks wandered by, their iridescent trains sweeping the pavement behind them, this could be mistaken for a wildlife park. But the scene is Punta Marina, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region that has been colonised by the birds, to the delight – or despair – of its approximately 1,000 residents.

Butterfly Conservation poll is open until 7 June with choice of 60 species from small tortoiseshells to purple emperors

Will it be the rapidly disappearing former garden favourite, the small tortoiseshell? Or the poet John Masefield’s “oakwood haunting thing”, the charismatic purple emperor? Or perhaps the brimstone, the ultimate harbinger of spring?

The question of which is Britain’s favourite butterfly is being put to a popular vote for the first time. The charity Butterfly Conservation is running the poll, which runs until 7 June, giving people the chance to choose their favourite from the 60 species that fly around Britain every summer.

Following Tesla Full Self Driving (Supervised) approval and deployment in the Netherlands, the driver-assist software is now permitted to use in Belgium, sort of. For now, one Tesla car is allowed to test the technology in Flanders, the northern region of Belgium. Of course, if all goes well, Full Self ... [continued]

The post Tesla Full Self Driving (Supervised) Now Permitted in Belgium appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive: Commission says alert would trigger coordinated international response that could help avoid millions dying

The climate crisis should be declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, or millions more people will die unnecessarily, leading international experts have said.

The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic).

Climate and transport organisations warn ministers not to ‘sleepwalk into crisis’ amid Iran war oil and gas shortages

Private jets should be banned and the speed limit on UK motorways reduced to 60mph as part of a pre-emptive effort to ease the looming fuel supply crisis, according to leading climate and transport organisations.

The group – including Greenpeace and Transport and Environment – are calling on ministers not to “sleepwalk into a crisis” that could lead to severe shortages of jet fuel and spiralling petrol prices at the pump in the coming months.

The Trump administration’s Jones Act waiver is a small policy exception with a much larger lesson. The same administration that says it wants to restore American maritime dominance, rebuild domestic shipbuilding, counter China’s industrial scale, and make U.S. logistics more secure also waived parts of the law usually treated as ... [continued]

The post Jones Act Waiver Exposes America’s Shipbuilding Gap appeared first on CleanTechnica.