Category: Climate, Environment & Pollution (Page 8 of 10)
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ukraine matters to the World and that Russia “must not succeed”.
The genie is out of the bottle. AI will be used and misused, a tool and a weapon. The threats and opportunities will grow. Many will be harmed in the name of progress.
However, the U.S. based Council on Foreign Relations is leaving that question open »
Some experts believe this increasingly powerful technology could lead to amazing advances and prosperity. Yet, many tech and industry leaders are warning that AI poses substantial risks, and they are calling for a moratorium on AI research so that safety measures can be established. But amid mounting great-power competition, it’s unclear whether national governments will be able to coordinate on regulating this technology that offers so many economic and strategic opportunities.
News of the recent discovery of plastic-eating bacteria in the Alps raises hope they could be harnessed for recycling. But such a solution remains some way off, cautions Swiss researcher Joel Rüthi.
Global clean energy investment to be over USD$1.7 trillion in 2023
International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol said the projection is the latest sign that a “new global clean energy economy is emerging” at a rate that is consistent with UN targets for limiting global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels.
Invasion of Ukraine ‘has fuelled funding boom for clean energy’
The Guardian | Business Green | Financial Times 🔒 | DW |
The law came into force two years after lawmakers had voted to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.
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France’s Citizens’ Convention on Climate, which was created by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019 and included 150 members of the public, had proposed scrapping plane journeys where train journeys of under four hours existed.
Comparing emissions per passenger per km travelled from different modes of transport
NY Times » If a prolonged power failure in Phoenix coincided with a heat wave, half the population, nearly 800,000 residents, would require ER care for heat stroke or other heat-related illnesses, overwhelming the city’s hospital system, a new study warns. Other cities are also at risk.
NY Times » As a result, the air is cleaner, the streets are quieter and the grid hasn’t collapsed. But problems with unreliable chargers persist.
Environment minister Christophe Béchu told French newspaper JDD that his government was no longer betting on limiting temperatures to 1.5°C or at least well below 2°C.
“We can’t escape the reality of global warming,” Bechu warned in a statement on Sunday.
In a wide-ranging interview at the Financial Times Weekend festival, Hillary Clinton offered stark assessments on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, US-China relations, and US president Joe Biden’s re-election prospects next year.
Battery-powered two-wheelers will outsell traditional bikes in Germany for the first time in 2023, according to projections from the country’s industry group. They’re already dominant in the mountain bike category, where nine in ten bicycles are powered by a motor.
Global temperatures are expected to surge to record-breaking levels in the next five years and breach the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7-degree Fahrenheit) threshold set out in the Paris climate agreement, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The Guardian | Radio Free Asia | NY Times | Fast Company | Axios | RFi
For well over a century, the oil and gas industry has drilled holes across California in search of black gold and a lucrative payday. But with production falling steadily, the time has come to clean up many of the nearly quarter-million wells scattered from downtown Los Angeles to western Kern County and across the state.
CBS » Some colleges and universities are investing in and accept donations from the same oil companies that drive global warming.
CNN » The event would be the first summit attended by the Syrian President since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011.
The Federal Highway Administration has given its blessing to New York City’s plan after an environmental review determined a “Finding of No Significant Impact” over a project area that encompasses 28 counties across three states. In what has become an agonizingly drawn-out process — the state legislature approved congestion pricing in 2019, for those keeping track — the MTA has cleared one more hurdle in its quest to charge drivers to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. To say that the agency could really use the plan’s projected $1 billion in annual revenue is an understatement.
For Jawa, it means much-needed extra income. When her husband died of a stroke in December 2022, Jawa wasn’t sure how she would pay for her children’s schooling. But when a neighbor got electric lighting shortly after, she realized she could continue weaving clothes for the market late into the evening.
“It used to be dark at night, now it’s bright until morning,” the 30-year old mother of two said, carefully arranging and pushing red threads at the loom. “So tonight I work … to pay for the children.”
Around the world, hundreds of millions of people live in communities without regular access to power, and off-grid solar systems like these are bringing limited access to electricity to places like these years before power grids reach them.
The governor’s office said New York would be the first state in the U.S. to advance such a ban via legislation. California and Washington have taken similar steps through their building codes, Politico reported.
On the flip side, at least 23 states have enacted laws that prevent state and local governments from regulating which energy sources homeowners and business owners use, according to Pew.
Elsewhere » Washington Post / Wall Street Journal /