Interesting Ideas

The cost of producing milk is higher than that being paid by milk processors, leaving farmers operating at a loss

“Every morning that I roll out of bed at 4.40am, I know I’m losing £1,800 that day, just by getting up.” This is the stark daily reality for Paul Tompkins, as he and his fellow dairy farmers struggle in the face of plummeting milk prices.

Tompkins, who is the third generation to run his family’s 234-hectare (600-acre) farm in the Vale of York, can produce milk for about 40p a litre from his 500-strong herd of black and white Holstein cows. However, he is being paid only 29p a litre by his milk processor, leaving him operating at a loss, despite trying to run his business as efficiently as possible.

Cranbrook, Kent: I have a stretch of leggy hawthorn that needs attention, so I head out into the cold with my axe and billhook

Wire netting is everywhere in the Kent Weald – barbed boundaries to ancient pastures where sheep and cattle still idly graze. But what did farmers do for the hundreds of years before stock fencing was invented?

Hedges, so rooted in what we wistfully consider to be our natural landscape, are in fact human-made features, planted almost solely for the purpose of enclosure. Unmanaged hedges are not a permanent solution, though: young trees mature, trunks become bare, and animal‑sized holes appear, rendering them useless. To remedy this, the practice of hedge laying was developed; unlike bricklaying, it is an act of maintenance rather than creation.

A new, energy efficient desalination system leverages natural water pressure to make a 40% cut in energy consumption.

The post Yet Another US Startup Has A Global Energy Transition Plan Up Its Sleeve appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Some regions of the continent have enough ice to push up sea levels by 15 metres if they all melt, but researchers don’t yet fully understand the consequences

On one side of Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi’s view across the vast Totten ice shelf, the sun sat low on the Antarctic horizon. On the other, a full moon.

The ice shelf is “flat and white”, says Galton-Fenzi. “If there’s cloud around, you lose the horizon.”

Today, Democratic governors from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Maryland signed onto a deal to ensure PJM takes measures that ensure Big Tech is paying their fair share for their massive power usage. The nation’s largest grid operator, PJM, has been in the process of creating ... [continued]

The post 8 Democratic Governors Urge Big Tech To Pay Their Fair Share appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The US has issued a new "emergency" plan to force data centers to pay for the electricity they need but it undercuts renewables,

The post Data Center Demand For Electricity Provokes US Government Response appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As Steve recently wrote, Canada announced a trade deal with China that will allow a quota of 49,000 EVs at a tariff rate of 6.1%, raising to 70,000 vehicles over five years. This is big news. While the quota volume might look small compared to the Chinese market, it makes ... [continued]

The post Canada’s New Trade Agreement Has Far Reaching EV Implications appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Virunga park ranger says babies are well cared for by mother Mafuko but high infant mortality makes first weeks critical

It was noon by the time Jacques Katutu first saw the newborn mountain gorillas. Cradled in the arms of their mother, Mafuko, the tiny twins clung to her body for warmth in the forest clearing in Virunga national park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Katutu, head of gorilla monitoring in Virunga, has seen dozens of newborns in his 15 years as a ranger. But, he tells the Guardian, even he was touched by the sight of the fragile infant males, who face serious obstacles if they are to become silverbacks one day.

Have you ever thought about where your water comes from? The question occurred to me when I moved to a southeastern condo community. In my former rural New England home, we had an artesian well. Now we are part of an urban water supply system, and I became curious about the ... [continued]

The post The Complex Process Of An Urban Water Supply System appeared first on CleanTechnica.

I’m not a huge fan of “there are two kinds of people in the world” statements, but there is certainly a spectrum in human beings from, on the one hand, always looking for a fight, and, on the other hand, looking for similarities and reasons to collaborate or be friends. ... [continued]

The post Yup, What We Said Would Happen Is Happening Thanks To Trump’s Idiotic Approach To International Relations appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The cattlewoman is stranded alone, rationing her supplies and worried about her health. Meanwhile the mine sits mothballed

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Cattlewoman Trish Goodwin should be celebrating.

Last Friday, her parched property off the Capricorn Highway near the tiny town of Bluff in the central highlands of Queensland received “very good soaking rain” – nearly 200mm would fall in a few days.

A new business model for electric ships deploys battery swapping and smaller vessels to cut the total cost of ownership below conventional cargo ships.

The post US Electric Ship Innovator Aims For Global Impact appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Architects and designers have recycled ancient practice of collecting rainwater to make buildings ecologically friendly

When the legendary Taiwanese rock band Mayday were due to perform in Beijing one evening in May 2023, some fans were worried that the rainy weather could affect the show. Mayday were taking to the stage in Beijing’s National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, built for the 2008 Olympics. Like the real-life twig piles that give the building its nickname, the stadium is built with an intricate and highly porous lattice, made of steel.

“Don’t worry too much,” reassured an article published by the official newsletter for China’s ministry of water resources. “The Bird’s Nest also has its ‘secret weapon’!”

Naturally, I see a lot of headlines every day. Many of them are basic news stories or repeat what’s been published many times before. However, one really caught my attention yesterday and piqued my curiosity. The headline was “Tesla: Little More Than A Gamble On History Repeating Itself.” I like ... [continued]

The post Wild — Tesla Valuation 111× Company’s Forward Free Cash Flow appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Hyundai Motor Group’s autonomous driving joint venture, Motional, will commercialize its fully driverless Level 4 robotaxi service in Las Vegas by the end of 2026, underpinned by a ‘Safety First’ approach and a transition to end-to-end (E2E) AI motion planning. Autonomous driving is advancing from promise to reality. Motional — ... [continued]

The post How Motional’s Robotaxi is Making Driverless Vehicles a Safe, Reliable and Accessible Reality appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, as the saying goes, and US President Donald Trump is desperate to avoid losing. But, losing he is. Take his ferocious, no-holds-barred attack on the thousands of workers employed by the US offshore wind industry. While successfully obliterating many wind jobs during the course ... [continued]

The post Losing Loser Loses Another Offshore Wind Fight, Again appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Todolí foundation produces varieties from Buddha’s hands to sudachi and hopes to help citrus survive climate change

It was on a trip with a friend to the east coast of Spain that the chef Matthew Slotover came across the “Garden of Eden”, an organic farm growing citrus varieties he had never heard of. The Todolí Citrus Foundation is a nonprofit venture and the largest private collection of citrus in the world with more than 500 varieties, and its owners think the rare fruit could hold the genetic secrets to growing citrus groves that can deal with climate change.

The farm yields far more interesting fruit than oranges and lemons for Slotover’s menu, including kumquat, finger lime, sudachi and bergamot.

Guardian analysis shows electricity bills were up 6.7% last year, and much higher in some states, and gas bills up 5.2%

• Trump’s failed energy bill pledge leaves US households struggling: ‘It’s obscene’

Donald Trump has comprehensively failed to meet a key election promise to slash Americans’ energy bills in half within the first year of his presidency, with power prices instead surging across the US.

The average household electricity bill in the US was 6.7% more expensive in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to a Guardian analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Department of Energy’s statistical arm. The increases meant that, on average, US households paid nearly $116 more across 2025 than they did in 2024.

As international treaty comes into force, bill to make it law in Britain is moving at ‘glacial pace’ through parliament

The UK risks being shut out of a historic oceans summit because parliament has failed to ratify the UN’s high seas treaty, environmental charities and campaigners have warned.

The high seas treaty, formally known as the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, comes into force on Saturday, after two decades of talks.