Interesting Ideas

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.

As part of the ongoing saga of reconstructing my mouth after surgery, I had to go to the dentist this morning. She made the mistake of asking me what I would be doing for the rest of the day, which gave me a perfect opportunity to chat about the BYD ... [continued]

The post BYD Atto 1 Test Drive appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As another week comes to a close, many of us are looking forward to pouring ourselves a cold one. However, like many aspects of our lives, there are environmentally smarter ways to consume our beverage of choice. At the end of one of the long days at CES, many people ... [continued]

The post Happy Hour Clean Technology Special: Pubinno Smart Tap at CES 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.

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.

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.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Grok has been making waves around the world so far this year because its "spicy" mode has been showing people in skimpy clothing.

The post Sexualized Grok Antics Continue To Get Musk In Trouble appeared first on CleanTechnica.

From ride-to-work challenges to waste-conscious catering, making your office more environmentally minded doesn’t have to be a slog

• Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint

• Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com

January marks the start of a new work year, and as Australians head back to the office, site or shop floor, it’s a good opportunity to revisit and refresh some wasteful work practices.

Most people spend a considerable amount of time at work so actions we take there can be meaningful, says Helen Oakey, chief executive at Renew, a not-for-profit that advocates for people to live sustainably.

Exclusive: Secret report suggests fats, oils and grease accumulate in ‘inaccessible dead zone’ at Malabar plant, then dislodge when pumping pressure ‘rapidly increases’

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A giant fatberg, potentially the size of four Sydney buses, within Sydney Water’s Malabar deepwater ocean sewer has been identified as the likely source of the debris balls that washed up on Sydney beaches a year ago.

Sydney Water isn’t sure exactly how big the fatberg is because it can’t easily access where it has accumulated.

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.

Canada and China have agreed to a new tariff arrangement that will see more Chinese made EVs imported to Canada.

The post Canada Lowers Tariffs On Chinese Made Cars 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’!”

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.

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.

From Sydney’s northern beaches to the bottom of the Atlantic – the story of a man who won a trip of a lifetime in a local supermarket competition

Bandra, Mumbai, 1998.

Andrew Rogers, a 34-year-old Sydney greenkeeper, was visiting family in India with his wife, Winnie, and one-year-old son, Terence. Inside, as aunties prepared breakfast – the kitchen a sanctuary from the humid, honking streets – the phone rang.

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.

This week’s furore is microplastics researchers’ ozone moment. If they fail, the powerful plastics lobby will step into the breach

• Debora MacKenzie is a science journalist and author of Stopping the Next Pandemic: How Covid-19 Can Help Us Save Humanity

Are we being injured and killed by ubiquitous, teeny-tiny shards of toxic plastic? Or aren’t we? For many months, the Guardian has reported a series of worrying scientific results that our bodies are full of jagged microplastic particles that could be giving us everything from heart attacks to reproductive problems.

But on Tuesday, the Guardian revealed that a significant number of scientists think many of these studies showed no such thing. Or maybe they did. The methods are new and riddled with problems, so we can’t always reliably tell.

Debora MacKenzie is a science journalist and author of Stopping the Next Pandemic: How Covid-19 Can Help Us Save Humanity

Germany’s newly pressurized hydrogen backbone segment with no suppliers and no customers is often described as a clean break from the past, a necessary early investment in a future hydrogen economy. The steel tells a different story. The route, diameter, age, and economics of the pipeline point back to Russian ... [continued]

The post Germany’s Hydrogen Backbone & the Long Shadow of Russian Gas appeared first on CleanTechnica.

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.