The headline number is startling. The top 10% of American households now account for roughly half of all consumer spending, according to data reported by the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg in 2025. That has never been true in the modern era. It creates a situation where the economic pulse ... [continued]
The post Why US Inequality Makes EVs, Solar, & Heat Pumps Fragile appeared first on CleanTechnica.
India is piling into the renewable energy space as it seeks to lower its emissions, and Australia is also raising its ambitions.
The post Good News From India & Australia On Emissions appeared first on CleanTechnica.
For release: September 18, 2025
Press contact: awards@coveringclimatenow.org
Today, the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now announced 49 winners of the 2025 CCNow Journalism Awards.
Now in its fifth year, the CCNow awards program has become a recognized standard for excellence. This year’s winners hail from around the world, from outlets big and small, and, together, their work represents the leading edge of climate storytelling.
See all of 2025’s winners at coveringclimatenow.org/awards.
For 2025, CCNow received more than 1,200 entries, from journalists in nearly 50 countries and representing every corner of the climate journalism profession. The winners were picked by a judging panel of 118 distinguished journalists from 32 countries and territories, many of whom are past winners and finalists themselves.
Judges selected two to three winners in each of 14 subject-based categories, as well as three entries in a category for large projects and collaborations and three Emerging Journalists of the Year.
In addition, the judges named three 2025 CCNow Journalists of the Year. They are: Thaslima Begum, a British and Bangladeshi freelance journalist covering human rights and the climate emergency’s front lines; Vanessa Hauc, the anchor and director of Noticias Telemundo’s environmental investigative unit, Planeta Tierra; and Ayoola Kassim, head of programs at Nigeria’s Channels Television, where she is also the creator, anchor, and producer of the network’s first environmental program, Earthfile. In addition to their reporting, each of these awardees is an active participant in the broader journalism and climate communities — serving in leadership roles with various professional organizations, providing climate expertise to decision makers and the public, and mentoring younger journalists.
“Each of these women have persevered against long odds to deliver the news their communities need to make informed decisions about the climate emergency, including its potential solutions,” said CCNow executive director Mark Hertsgaard.
Judges additionally selected two to three winners in each of 14 subject-based categories, as well as three entries in a category for large projects and collaborations and three Emerging Journalists of the Year.
Outlets represented among the other winners include global stalwarts, like Reuters, Al Jazeera English, and The Washington Post; local outfits, like WBUR in Boston, Univision 45 in Houston, and the New York Amsterdam News; and many newsrooms on the front lines of climate crisis, including Revista AzMina in Brazil, The Migration Story in India, the Daily Nation in Zambia, and many more.
“For the fifth year in a row, these awards celebrate the very best in climate journalism — around the world, in every medium, on every imaginable angle,” said Kyle Pope, CCNow’s co-founder. “These awards honor the people who are digging in, telling the story of our time with passion and excellence.”
Covering Climate Now is a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism collaboration with hundreds of news outlet partners from more than 60 countries. Grounded in the conviction that more and better news coverage is itself an essential climate solution, CCNow supports, convenes, and trains journalists and newsrooms to produce rigorous climate coverage that engages audiences. More information at www.coveringclimatenow.org.
The post Covering Climate Now Announces Winners of the 2025 CCNow Journalism Awards appeared first on Covering Climate Now.
With New York Climate Week approaching, clean tech stakeholders are pumping out all the good news about renewable energy -- despite the abrupt shift in federal energy policy this year.
The post Trump Celebrates NY Climate Week By Lowering Renewable Energy Borrowing Costs appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Two million people have been left forced from their homes by conflict between herders and farmers that has seen thousands killed and many more left malnourished, writes Nick Ferris
BYD Cars Philippines, a subsidiary of ACMobility, announced the local launch of the Tang DM-i seven-seater plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) on September 17, 2025. The vehicle is the largest SUV in BYD’s local electrified lineup, positioned to bring the brand’s Super DM-i technology to the family vehicle segment in ... [continued]
The post BYD Rolls Out Tang DM-i Plug-In Hybrid SUV In The Philippines appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Vingroup’s recently organized energy arm plans ambitious rooftop solar rollout, though experts warn about infrastructure challenges. VinEnergo Energy Joint Stock Company has announced plans to install 43 megawatts of rooftop solar power and 45 megawatt-hours of battery storage across three Vingroup manufacturing plants in Ha Tinh province. The ambitious project ... [continued]
The post VinEnergo’s 43MW Solar Push Tests Vietnam’s Grid-Strained Energy Ambition appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Facing a national target to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030, Philippine civic and environmentalists convened the Philippine Net Zero Conference 2025. Leading corporate and policy figures came together on September 18 for the event which focused on pushing the private sector past abstract climate pledges toward concrete, ... [continued]
The post Philippine Net Zero Conference Maps Tech-Driven Decarbonization appeared first on CleanTechnica.
As some newsroom roles go the way of the dinosaurs, brand-new jobs are being born. An occasional series of Q&As with people who are the first to hold their title in their newsroom.
Tristan Werkmeister, 26, joined Reuters as the newsroom’s first social video reporter in January. The look of Reuters’ videos hasn’t radically changed — but output has. Reuters now produces four times as many vertical videos per day as it used to.
Most of the videos are straight news bulletins but occasionally Werkmeister narrates an explainer-style piece:
@reuters France’s government has collapsed again after Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a confidence vote in parliament on September 8. @tristanwerkmeister explains what led up to this, and what’s next on the political agenda. #france #politics #government #bayrou #assembleenationale ♬ original sound – Reuters
Werkmeister has been on the job for a few months now and I caught up with him last week. We went back and forth about being the “first-ever” in a legacy newsroom, how he’s helping other reporters unlock their “social brain,” how he incorporates AI into a social video workflow, and more. Our conversation has been lightly edited.
My role focuses on expanding vertical video globally, especially outside the U.S. I’m constantly thinking about the most impactful ways to tell stories to our global audience, from Kyiv residents sleeping underground to the collapse of the French government.
The look of our social videos hasn’t changed dramatically, but the strategy has. We now produce about four times more vertical videos per day [than we used to], and thanks to colleagues in Asia, our operation runs almost 24/7. Behind the scenes, that growth has meant dozens of people working together, new tracking systems, and smart use of AI tools.
I help to curate a balance of breaking news, explainers, user-generated content, investigations, beautifully shot features, and lighter, feel-good stories. Ironically, it’s not unlike building the rundown of a traditional TV bulletin. And it’s paying off: our TikTok account has more than tripled its followers since January, alongside big jumps in engagement.
We recognize shifts in news consumption habits, and more than ever, we need to meet audiences where they are. In the U.S., more people now get their news via social media and video platforms over any other source, according to this year’s Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. But what’s often overlooked is that it’s not just younger people making the shift — all age groups are going in the same direction.
It’s all about focusing on story angles that will resonate with our audience. That means that we’ll translate a video headline like “Inside the mine that feeds the tech world” to “The hidden cost of your smartphone.” I put a lot of effort into our hooks to get the lowest drop-off rate possible, with strong visuals and a punchy opening sentence. It’s long-established that we can’t just copy and paste articles for voiceovers. Sentences are shorter. There needs to be a reason for people to watch until the end. And stories need to be either boiled down to the essentials, or reframed to put all the attention on the most social-friendly angle. We’re experimenting with formats and editing techniques, from pacing to sound design.
Collaboration is also key. I see my role as the hub for vertical video content. I work with our podcast and newsletter teams, TV presenters who produce presenter-led content, and with our digital video team on longer features. I also help text reporters who want to highlight their most impactful stories. I walk them through scripting and filming for vertical formats, which is one of the most rewarding parts of my job. It’s about unlocking people’s “social brain,” helping them step into the shoes of our followers and see how much work goes into making something simple and effective.
Whenever possible, we encourage reporters to present their own stories. They know them best, it reflects the diversity of our newsroom, and it builds trust through our journalists, not just our brand. Audiences today crave relatability, authenticity, and familiar faces — being one of the best news agencies in the world helps, but it’s not enough in 2025.
Then I push reporters to think audience-first: Why should I care? So what? How is this impacting me? The goal is to strip away jargon and explain it like you would to a friend — simple, direct, and accessible, even for non-native speakers. Producing videos for social isn’t intuitive at first, even if you consume them regularly, but once you notice the tricks that work, you can start replicating them and even creating new ones.
That openness meant I could suggest changes to our workflows and content strategy and see them implemented almost immediately. One major shift was around vertical video: instead of teams producing pieces in isolation and handing them off to social just to post, everything is now pitched and reviewed with the social team in mind. That’s given us a clear role in shaping vertical video across the newsroom, and it’s made our output stronger.
That’s why I believe it’s so crucial for Reuters to be a one-stop shop for news on social platforms: if someone only follows one account, they should still come away with a solid grasp of what’s happening globally.
My sister, who’s a few years younger, gets her news exclusively from Instagram and TikTok. She’s exactly the kind of audience we serve on our social platforms.
Like many journalists of my generation, I’ve done a bit of everything. I’ve written for local and national papers, produced for radio, and spent years in traditional broadcast. I’ve been live in studios under far too much makeup, dreaded vox pop assignments, reported across Europe on little sleep, and produced coverage of events ranging from Finland’s tourism boom to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I’ve interviewed CEOs, astronauts, artists, and researchers.
All of that means I didn’t go straight into a producer role. I know what it’s like to be on the ground, under pressure, making editorial calls in the moment. That’s why I’ll sometimes message our video journalists to ask them to frame an interview a little wider than usual so I can crop it vertically later. That hands-on experience gives me strong technical instincts, and I hope our attention to those details makes a difference in the final product.
I also want to deepen our relationship with audiences — through comments, video replies, polls, and community-building — and to report more stories directly from the field. For me, the ultimate goal is to show that social media isn’t just a promotional tool, but a journalistic platform in its own right.
Outside Reuters, I make a point of meeting with peers at other newsrooms to swap ideas and spot emerging trends. I also give guest lectures at universities, and those conversations with students are invaluable. They keep me grounded in how the next generation consumes news, but also in how habits are shifting across all audiences. It’s a reminder that our work isn’t about producing for algorithms, but about serving audiences where they are.
This is supposed to be a website about media innovation, so I suppose we must acknowledge the innovation of Brendan Carr, Donald Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission. For decades, the renewal of television licenses was overwhelmingly pro forma; a license has been taken away because of content exactly once, when a Mississippi station was racist enough to block Black people from its airwaves for more than a decade. But Carr, that entrepreneurial thinker, realized that the FCC’s power could be abused to force media companies to bend to the regime’s will, forcing out voices it doesn’t like and encouraging fealty in advance. Innovation!
We saw it with 60 Minutes, whose corporate parent — needing FCC approval for a merger — was willing to grease Trump’s palm with millions over a bogus complaint over editing. Depending on who you believe, that handshake deal may or may not have included the canning of America’s No. 1 late-night talk show host and a side deal promising millions in pro-Trump propaganda airtime. It left one of the country’s most important news sources in the hands of a regime loyalist and with a friendly minder overseeing operations.
Well, Paramount isn’t the only media company that needs FCC approval for something — and thus finds itself needing to kiss Carr’s ring. Nexstar, which owns many local TV stations, wants to merge with Tegna, which also owns many local TV stations. That merger will need FCC approval. Brendan Carr has no ideological objections to large media companies becoming larger media companies; indeed, he’s specifically said he wants to make such consolidations easier to pull off! But he’s not one to pass up a point of leverage, and he’s now used Nexstar’s corporate urge to merge to knock another Trump critic off the air. From The New York Times:
ABC announced on Wednesday evening that it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show “indefinitely” after conservatives accused the longtime host of inaccurately describing the politics of the man who is accused of fatally shooting the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.The abrupt decision by the network, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, came hours after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, assailed Mr. Kimmel and suggested that his regulatory agency might take action against ABC because of remarks the host made on his Monday telecast. The network did not explain its decision, but the sequence of events on Wednesday amounted to an extraordinary exertion of political pressure on a major broadcast network by the Trump administration…
Mr. Carr, in an interview on a right-wing podcast on Wednesday, said that Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people,” and that the F.C.C. was “going to have remedies that we can look at.”
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this — I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Mr. Carr told the podcast’s host, Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead”…
Shortly after Mr. Carr’s remarks, Nexstar, an owner of ABC affiliate stations around the country, said that it would pre-empt Mr. Kimmel’s program “for the foreseeable future” because of the host’s remarks. Nexstar recently announced that it planned to acquire a rival company in a $6.2 billion deal, which will be scrutinized by the F.C.C. In a social media post on Wednesday, Mr. Carr expressed approval for Nexstar’s decision to pre-empt Mr. Kimmel, thanking the company “for doing the right thing.” He added: “I hope that other broadcasters follow Nexstar’s lead.”
Trump, now seeing Colbert and Kimmel’s heads on stakes, is now demanding similar treatment for Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon. (“Do it NBC!!! President DJT.”)
I found myself nodding through the writer John Ganz’s take on the matter:
If you were writing a hackneyed novel or film about an authoritarian America, it would go exactly like this: a figure close to the regime is assassinated, a massive shrill and sanctimonious hue and cry rises over the martyred dead, hysteria is whipped up about terrorism and public disorder, leaders in the regime and movement promise vengeance, private citizens are mobbed and lose their jobs for expressing anti-regime sentiments at the encouragement of regime officials and regime-aligned demagogues, and, then, the power of the state is brought to bear against public figures who oppose and criticize the regime.This is exactly what’s happening now. The FCC used the threat of its regulatory powers to push Jimmy Kimmel off the air, and it worked. Any explanation other than this one, any account that prevaricates about this reality or points out this or that technicality is a dishonest avoidance of the situation. There will always be some justification that’s minimally persuasive and encourages people to overlook or rationalize what’s going on. That’s how this works: Little exceptions, little reasons to look the other way, little reasons to think, “In this case, what’s the big deal?” They will offer people alibis. And many people will take them. People will say, “Well, what he said was bad.” Or, “Well, they did get the facts wrong.” Then the chill sets in, and people start to become ever more careful about what they say.
Bill Carter, the longtime New York Times beat reporter covering late night, now at Latenighter:
ABC responded by instantly caving, taking Kimmel’s show off the air, and in the process handing Trump the opportunity to glory in his handiwork — which he did gleefully by declaring ABC had canceled the show…ABC, of course, realizes that Trump and Carr will make good on the threat, which Carr stated openly and without any regret about his unabashed abuse of power in undermining the Bill of Rights, using terms Tony Soprano would have loved: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”If ABC decides to stand by Kimmel, the hard way may be financially excruciating. Already the other huge ABC station group, Sinclair Broadcasting, a famously hard-conservative group, leapt to support Carr’s and Trump’s bullying, issuing a statement Wednesday night that it would not carry Kimmel’s show no matter if ABC finds a way to return him to the air…
ABC/Disney is in a brutal situation. This administration can inflict enormous damage to its bottom line if the company defies. It will have to weigh that against the value in defending the principle that the American government has no business dictating who gets to talk on television. If the decision is surrender, much more will be lost than one more talented late-night host.
I'll say it again:
In my opinion, when companies or institutions cave to Trump despite the law being on their side, they are not misunderstanding the law; they are making educated guesses that the U.S. is heading in a direction where, in practice, the law won't matter.
— Matthew Segal (@segalmr) September 17, 2025
https://t.co/coFILBHABk pic.twitter.com/kx5gq6yNy8
— This You? (@Thiss_Youu) September 18, 2025
Trump literally said Kimmel is next back in July! All of this is clearly pretextual. It's like having us believe Lisa Cook got fired because of a mortgage application. Other people can pretend to be that stupid, but you don't have to be.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 17, 2025
I asked FCC chair @BrendanCarrFCC if he had any new comment now that ABC has pulled Jimmy Kimmel's show, and he sent me this GIF pic.twitter.com/ljz60FzHN4
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 17, 2025
Bangkok’s streets tell the story of Thailand’s transportation evolution through the distinctive puttering of its three-wheeled tuk-tuks. What began as noisy, smoke-belching two-stroke engines in the 1960s transformed into cleaner LPG-powered vehicles in the 1990s, and now these iconic vehicles are completing their technological journey with electric powertrains that promise ... [continued]
The post Thailand’s Iconic Tuk-Tuks Evolve: From Smoker To Zero Emission appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Chicago TREND and TREND Community Development Corporation have completed a solar panel installation at Butterfield Plaza Shopping Center in Olympia Fields, IL. This area is about 34 miles south and a little west of the city of Chicago. These small solar power projects matter locally and overall because they are ... [continued]
The post Solar Power Demonstration Project Completed At Chicago Area Shopping Plaza appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Championing the valued and vital work of unsung climate heroes, we asked our eco-conscious readers to nominate deserving candidates for The Independent’s Climate 100 List
Separate research found that at the current rate of global heating, more than 70,000 people will die in the US by 2050
Smoke billowing from wildfires will cause a growing number of deaths around the world in the decades ahead as the planet continues to heat up, new research has found.
Wildfire smoke is expected to kill as many as 1.4 million people globally each year by the end of the century if planet-heating emissions are not curbed, according to a study published on Thursday.
Continue reading...Smoke from wildfires exacerbated by climate change may cause as many as 71,000 additional deaths per year in the United States by 2050, a study published Thursday in the journal Nature found.
Nonprofit public media organization PRX today announced Dovetail Spots, a new feature of Dovetail, the podcast publishing and monetization platform built and operated by PRX. This new function will enable podcasters on Dovetail to seamlessly request and trade promotional spots or custom messages with other podcasts distributed via Dovetail, creating a cross-promotional exchange.
Dovetail Spots will also offer podcasters a turnkey approach. When a cross-promotional message request is accepted by a podcast, it will automatically create the campaign and will be reflected in the producer’s inventory dashboard on Dovetail.
Dovetail Spots will first be available to select public radio stations using Dovetail beginning this fall, before rolling out to additional users on the platform in the future. An all-in-one podcast platform trusted by numerous acclaimed producers, Dovetail from PRX enables producers to deliver audio to audiences across major on-demand podcast players, allowing producers to maximize available ad inventory through dynamic ad insertion leveraging accurate forecasting models.
“We want to continue to increase opportunities for podcasts to share information about their shows with listeners on other podcasts, and to grow their audiences — achieving scale to in turn help unlock potential revenue opportunity,” said Brandon Hundt, Director, Technical Product Management at PRX. “For example, if a locally-produced podcast is seeking to reach more listeners nationwide, Dovetail Spots puts the tools in place to trade impressions with other shows, helping each other to grow. This is a pivotal time for both public media and podcasting. At PRX, we’re committed to strengthening our community.”
Dovetail from PRX is used by more than 330 public radio podcasts nationwide and numerous more producers of purpose with Pulitzer Prize and Peabody-winning productions heard by millions, including Radiotopia, publications across Condé Nast, and more.
Celebrating more than 20 years as a nonprofit public media company, PRX works in partnership with leading independent creators, organizations, and stations to bring meaningful audio storytelling into millions of listeners’ lives. PRX is one of the world’s top podcast publishers, public radio distributors, and audio producers, serving as an engine of innovation for public media and podcasting to help shape a vibrant future for creative and journalistic audio. Shows across PRX’s portfolio of broadcast productions, podcast partners, and its Radiotopia podcast network have received recognition from the Peabody Awards, the Tribeca Festival, the International Documentary Association, the National Magazine Awards, and the Pulitzer Prizes. Visit PRX.org for more.
PRX Announces Dovetail Spots, Enabling Trades of Promotional Messages Among Shows was originally published in PRX Official on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Venture activity also surges, but regulatory and integration challenges threaten timely scale-up. Demand for copper is projected to reach unprecedented levels, as copper is a key component of the energy transition. As the world races to electrify several sectors, including transport, as well as expand the adoption of renewables, coupled ... [continued]
The post Innovation In Copper Extraction Is Accelerating Amid Soaring Demand appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Here we go again. An obscure, methodologically poor, paper published with little to no review makes a convenient point and gets elevated into supposedly ‘blockbusting’ science by the merchants of bullshit, sorry, doubt. Actual scientists drop everything to respond, but not before the (convenient) nonsense has spread widely. Rebuttals are written and submitted, but by the time they are published everyone has moved on.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it happens a lot. In climate science, one classic example was Soon and Baliunas (2003) which instantly made it’s way to the Senate floor (via Inhofe’s then aide Marc Morano). Other examples abound. So what is this week’s example?
As Dessler et al report laid out convincingly last week, and in multiple posts by Tamino/Grant Foster, the sea level chapter in the DOE climate science ‘critique’ was notably poor. They highlighted 5 specific US tide gauge records, showed only four of them, declared that no acceleration was visible, and concluded that no acceleration was present anywhere. Curiously the 5th record (that wasn’t shown) has a very clear acceleration. They then bungled the referencing of the projections and invented a NOAA projection that did not correspond to anything real. Notably, they did no actual analysis. Actual analyses of the tide gauge record show that acceleration is sea level rise is not only widespread, but it is increasingly clear:
Conveniently, rather than defend the indefensible, one of the authors (Judith Curry) in response latched onto a new paper that apparently agreed with her prior vibes. The new paper is Voortman & de Vos (2025) (VdV25) which was published on Aug 27, and hit the contrary-sphere a few days later heavily boosted by Michael Shellenberger and a few others. This paper claims that acceleration in 243 global tide gauge records is only significant in 4% of them. This, to be clear, is rubbish. But as always in such papers, it takes a little work to figure out what has gone wrong.
Fortunately, a group of scientists led by Bob Kopp, have quickly put together a rebuttal and request for a retraction (that has been submitted to the journal): Kopp et al. (2025). In it, they point out that this analysis has in fact already been done properly (Wang et al, 2025, published before VdV25 was submitted), and then go on to explain the basic errors.
Apart from the basic lack of context that happens when you ignore the satellite record, the main issues are that the statistical model they use is overly complicated and not properly described, the statistical tests for significance are not applied properly, and the correction for multiple hypothesis testing (which assumes there is no correlation across tide gauge records) is just wrong and all but guarantees their erroneous result.
Curiously, almost all of these errors were also made in an earlier Voortman paper, and were raised by the commenters on that paper at the time (Le Bars et al., 2023)!
How will this all play out in the public discourse? The process of comments, replies, and retractions is relatively slow (multiple months to a year) and even with this preprint quickly available, none of the promoters of VdV25 will deal substantively with any of this (they have not done, and will not do, any analysis themselves). It may well be that VdV25 never gets raised again, having served its purpose as a momentary distraction from the critique of CWG report. Whether or not it gets retracted is not really relevant to that.
We have seen this playbook many times before. Judith Curry and Michael Shellenberger are following in the (late) Pat Michaels’ footsteps who continually championed many new ‘blockbusting’ papers that were always on the verge of undermining the climate consensus, but that (somehow!) never quite did. Once folks lose the ability to check these things for themselves, and start basing claims on vibes, their estrangement from the scientific community hardens and the seriousness with which their opinions are taken decreases.
This little episode thus tells us very little about sea level rise acceleration, but quite a lot about the seriousness of the people involved.
The post Time and Tide Gauges wait for no Voortman first appeared on RealClimate.
Nanoplastics penetrate natural barriers in radish roots and accumulate in both fleshy part and leaves
Some 450 events are planned across the US this Sunday to celebrate growth of solar power and energy efficiency
As the Trump administration wages an all-out assault on climate protections and renewable energy, activists are gearing up for demonstrations this Sunday to hype up solar power and energy efficiency.
The national “day of action”, called Sun Day, will be spearheaded by the veteran climate activist Bill McKibben.
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen gave her State of the European Union speech Wednesday 09/10/2025. It is not a main event like the similar speech of the USA president — only half of the members of the EU parliament were present. But I decided to listen to it. With the war ... [continued]
The post Ursula Kicks EU Car Industry into Gear Making Affordable Small BEVs appeared first on CleanTechnica.
New Zealand is planning to eradicate millions of invasive animals that prey on the country's rare birds. The goal may not be possible, unless new technology can be developed to do it.
(Image credit: Yang Liu)
Exclusive: Residents of western Sydney and outer suburbs of Melbourne are at particular risk of high temperatures, data shows
As the federal government warns the climate crisis will increase heat-related deaths, with the impact disproportionately borne by the already vulnerable, data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia shows the parts of Australia’s major cities that are most vulnerable to heat.
The new measure, called the Heat Vulnerability Index and compiled by researchers at RMIT, combines temperature readings from satellites, with data on populations particularly susceptible to heat (such as older Australians and those with disabilities), the built environment and green space, and socioeconomic factors like income and education.
Continue reading...American biotech firm claims it is on course to recreate a living bird in as little as five years
The people of Johnshaven have watched the sea edge closer and closer. Preserving the path is key to protecting their community
Photographs by Murdo MacLeod
When Charis Duthie moved to Johnshaven with her husband in 1984, she could cycle along the coastal path out of the village. Now, she meets a dead end where the sea has snatched the land and is instead greeted with a big red warning sign of what is to come: Danger Coastal Erosion.
“You can see gardens that were there and now they’re gone,” she says.
Johnshaven, on Scotland’s North Sea coast, will attract more visitors if it has a well maintained coastal path
Continue reading...Increasingly erratic water cycle is creating food scarcity, rising prices, conflict and migration, says UN agency
Only a third of the world’s river basins experienced normal conditions last year as the climate crisis drove extremes of drought and flood, sometimes both in the same region.
The increasingly erratic water cycle is creating big problems for societies and governments and causing billions of dollars in damage, scientists warned.
Continue reading...Only a third of major river basins last year had flows within normal range
The warmest summer on record has brought a premature autumn – which could leave little food for overwintering birds
According to the Met Office, autumn in the UK began on 1 September, yet in the hedgerows around my home there have been signs of the season’s arrival for many weeks now, after the warmest summer on record.
Hawthorn trees, which usually produce their crimson berries from mid-September onwards, have been festooned since the second week of August; while blackthorns are drooping under the weight of huge, ripe, purple sloes.
Continue reading...CARSON CITY, NEVADA — The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada released a draft order that will make rooftop solar more expensive for Nevadans. Wil Gehl, Intermountain West Regional senior manager for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said the following in response to the draft order: “The draft order issued ... [continued]
The post Solar Industry Urges Nevada PUC to Change Course on Draft Order that Makes Residential Solar More Expensive appeared first on CleanTechnica.
A new long duration energy storage system that deploys molten tin as a heat transfer medium has received $20 million in Series A Plus funding, aimed at launching into commercial application.
The post Energy Storage 10× Cheaper Than Lithium-Ion Batteries Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels appeared first on CleanTechnica.
The other day, I shared a great chart reader Mike Shurtleff shared with us and wrote an article about it. The article was “Vehicle Sales Growth Since 2020 Is Entirely From Electric Cars,” and the chart came from Our World In Data. It’s a fascinating one that I highly recommend ... [continued]
The post This One Chart Embarrasses USA appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Hong Kong looks like it’s ready to get moving faster in the self-driving car market, and XPENG is right there at the doorstep ready to be part of it. In an announcement a few moments ago, XPENG stated: “XPENG welcomes the policy measures put forward by the Chief Executive in ... [continued]
The post XPENG Praises Hong Kong & Preps For Autonomous Driving Tests appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Electric vehicles of all kinds are growing around the world. The key fact is that battery costs have come down, a lot, and this has enabled more and more types of vehicles to pop up and be commercially competitive. From buses to bikes, from trucks to tuk-tuks, we have more ... [continued]
The post New Electric Watercraft from Taiga appeared first on CleanTechnica.
The fast-tracked update of the 2009 EPA Endangerment finding from the National Academies for Science, Engineering and Mathematics (NASEM), has now been released.
Unsurprisingly, it has come out strongly in favor of strengthening the conclusions of the 2009 finding. Specifically the conclude that:
It’s worth pausing to understand why this is unsurprising. It’s because the evidence for change, for attribution of that change, for model skill, for impacts, and, yes, for harm, is massively greater than it was in 2009. An additional 15 years of observations both in situ, and from satellites. In 2009, Terra/Aqua/Aura had only been observing for a few years. The GRACE records of ice mass loss, ocean mass gain and groundwater depletion were only a few years long. Now it is over two decades. The Argo floats had only just started to be widespread enough to reduce the error on ocean heat content estimates. The key papers on the attribution of single events only started to appear in 2011. The climate model projections available in 2009 were from the CMIP3 ensemble – a group of models that, impressively, continues to successfully predict the global mean temperatures, but which are significantly less skillful compared to current models (CMIP6, or even better, the models being prepped from CMIP7).
2009 was before Harvey, Ida, Florence, Sandy, Irene – events which, while not ’caused’ by climate change, had impacts in the US (via rainfall amounts, intensity, and storm surge) that were very likely enhanced by it.
Rather than the situation being more uncertain than in 2009, we are far more confident in the basics than we were, and where there continue to be uncertainties and (sometimes vibrant) disagreements, these are generally about second order details, or at the cutting-edge intersections between climate and society.
Admittedly, this report was written at an express pace, dictated by the EPA’s actions and deadline and the DOE’s attempt at an end-run around the need for a proper assessment. The chutzpah of the EPA’s supporters complaining that this was done too quickly when they themselves cancelled the National Climate Assessment, set up an illegal FACA-violating ad hoc committee instead and had them report on a ridiculously short timeline with woefully insufficient expertise, is impressive. But even given the short turnaround time, this is an impressive document – mainly because the NASEM can confidently draw on a very broad range of experts and be sure that they are on top of their field.
It’s important to note that this kind of task, impartially advising the government on scientific matters, is exactly what the NASEM was set up to do in 1863. They self-commissioned this report, instead of being asked to do so by the EPA or any of the other relevant agencies, and that is an act of bravery in itself.
Chapeau.
The post Lil’ NAS Express first appeared on RealClimate.
The title of new report by the Grantham Institute at London’s Imperial College says it all: “Summer heat deaths in 854 European cities more than tripled due to climate change.” “Extreme heat is the deadliest type of weather and officially reported heat deaths remain significantly underestimated,” the researchers wrote. “We ... [continued]
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