Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Earth Day was April 22nd, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost […]
Enlarge / Firefighters from Stockton, California, put out flames off of Hidden Valley Rd. while fighting a wildfire, Friday, May 3, 2013 in Hidden Valley. (credit: Daria Devyatkina / Flickr) In the western United States, summer 2018 was a bad time for wildfires. In all, according to the government of California, 7,948 separate fires saw […]
Enlarge / Footprints made out of fresh green grass on a dry cracked earth base. (credit: Hype Photography / Getty Images ) Carbon taxes can attract a lot of flak. On one hand, some groups hate taxes and are indifferent to climate change—in Canada, various provincial governments actively fought (and ultimately lost ) against the […]
Enlarge / Sheep may safely graze. (credit: Karl-Friedrich Hohl / Getty Images ) What makes a good spot for livestock and a good spot for solar farms often overlaps. They’re both large, quite flat, and get a good amount of sun, being free from tall vegetation. As such, solar producers are increasingly leasing farm land […]
Enlarge / While the term “bushmeat” has regional connotations, Indigenous hunting goes on around the globe. (credit: Yuri Smityuk / Getty Images) Hunting, capturing, and eating wild meat comes with its share of risks, both in terms of environmental and human health. The consumption of bushmeat—a term that can be applied to meat from a […]
Enlarge / Protesters call for action on climate change in Kyiv, capital of Ukraine. (credit: Barcroft Media / Getty Images) After Joe Biden won the US presidential election, he pledged that the country would cut emissions by 50 percent by 2030. And the US is hardly alone in this ambition. According to new research by […]
Enlarge / Some of the massive volcanic deposits that are part of the Siberian Traps. (credit: MIT ) The end-Permian mass extinction was a big deal. It was the largest bulk extinction event ever and occurred 252 million years ago. A whopping 90 percent of all marine species and around 70 percent of their terrestrial […]
Enlarge / Having personal limits on carbon emissions might motivate more people to transition to lower carbon options. (credit: Mike Kemp / Getty Images) In 2008, the United Kingdom’s government evaluated the idea of a personal carbon allowance (PCA) to help reduce emissions. In short, the effort would put caps on the amount of carbon […]
Enlarge (credit: Olivier Le Moal | Getty Images) Before this century is over, we’re almost certainly going to need to pull massive amounts of carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere. While we already know how to do carbon capture and storage, it takes a fair amount of energy and equipment, and someone has to […]