Interesting Ideas

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.

Sometimes these electric vehicle developments don’t seem real, but they are. The speed at which transportation is electrifying is almost stunning sometimes. In the Flanders region of Belgium, the transport agency De Lijn commissioned its 1,000th electric bus. Yes, that’s electric bus number 1,000 — with many more to go. ... [continued]

The post 1,000th Electric Bus Set For Part Of Belgium appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

XPENG’s sales results in April were mixed. There are some strong figures and some weak ones. There’s also a new figure I’ve never seen before. First off, total sales in April were 31,011 vehicles. That was a 13.1% increase month over month, but it was also an 11.5% decline year ... [continued]

The post XPENG Sales Speed Jumps 44.7% Following VLA 2.0 Release 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?

Colombia hosted nearly 60 countries at pivotal time on world stage for fight to transition to a clean energy future

Looking out to sea from the grey sandy beaches of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, it is never hard to spot evidence of the country’s thriving fossil fuel export trade. Oil tankers ride at anchor on the horizon, and sometimes, locals say, lumps of coal wash up on the shore, blown off the collier ships that carry cargos from the nearby mines.

It was here, on Wednesday evening, that the Colombian government took a bold step to shift its economy – and that of the rest of the world – away from dependence on coal, gas and oil and into a new era of clean energy. With the first ever conference on “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, the host joined nearly 60 countries determined to loosen of the grip of petrostates on the world’s future.

Loaded with extras and produced at a cut price, the crossover SUV has overtaken rival cars from US, Japanese and Korean firms

The UK is no stranger to foreign cars. The bestseller lists in recent years have been dominated by the US’s Ford Puma, Japan’s Nissan Qashqai, Korea’s Kia Sportage and occasionally even Tesla’s Model Y.

But in March the top 10 provided a shock: a Chinese car leapt into the lead.

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.

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.