Tech

Why our continued use of fossil fuels is creating a financial time bomb

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) The numbers are startling. We know roughly how much more carbon dioxide we can put into the atmosphere before we exceed our climate goals—limiting warming to 1.5° to 2° C above preindustrial temperatures. From that, we can figure out how much more fossil fuel we can burn before […]

Tech

Four fast chargers every 50 miles—US unveils EV infrastructure plan

Enlarge / An Electrify America charging station. (credit: Charge America) About five years from now, a common complaint about electric vehicles—range anxiety—will be a thing of the past across much of the US. Starting this year, the federal government will begin doling out $5 billion to states over five years to build a nationwide network […]

Tech

EU plans to label natural gas and nuclear power plants “sustainable”

Enlarge (credit: iStock) The European Union says it wants to “prevent greenwashing” among investors, but a new proposal may end up encouraging the behavior it wants to banish. The European Commission put forward a plan today that defines what counts as a “sustainable investment, ” something that’s all but required in order to manage a […]

Tech

Biden revives climate portion of failed Build Back Better bill

Enlarge / President Joe Biden talks to reporters during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on January 19, 2022, in Washington, DC. (credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) President Later on Biden yesterday expressed support for breaking up the Build Back Better Act, saying that the particular parts intended to combat climate […]

Tech

Plastic industry pollution to overtake coal in US by 2030, report says

Enlarge / Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants near Baton Rouge, La. ‘Cancer Alley’ is one of the most polluted areas of the US and lies along the once pristine Mississippi River that stretches some 80 miles from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, where a dense concentration of oil refineries, petrochemical plants, and […]

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World’s largest chip foundry TSMC sets 2050 deadline to go carbon neutral

Enlarge / Signage for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is displayed inside the company’s headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan. (credit: Ashley Pon/Bloomberg ) The dirty secret of the computing and networking world is that most of its pollution comes not from the electricity used to run the devices, but from the energy and materials used to […]

Tech

Most of the power sector’s emissions come from a small minority of plants

Enlarge (credit: Picture Alliance / Getty Images ) The world seems to be simultaneously on fire and flooding, and the latest expert report indicates that we’ve just about run out of time to avoid even more severe climate change. All of that should leave us in a place where we are looking for ways to […]

Tech

Sweeping “Green Deal” promises to revamp EU economy, slash carbon pollution

Enlarge / Industrial climber Torsten Kuehne repairs a wind turbine about 60 meters high in Wulkow, Germany. (credit: Patrick Pleul/picture alliance ) The European Union today unveiled a dozen pieces of legislation that would overhaul the bloc’s economy in an effort to slash carbon emissions. The sweeping “ Green Deal ” proposal would cut carbon […]

Tech

Big Oil finds it hard to ignore pollution amid investor, court pressure

What comes up might go back down. (credit: Pete Markham) Yesterday was a bad day to be an oil company. First, a court in the Netherlands ruled that Royal Dutch Shell needs to slash its emissions more than it had planned in order to meet Paris Agreement targets. The court ordered the oil supermajor to […]