Enlarge / Thought climate change was already complicated? Now scientists have to consider the influence of tiny bits of atmospheric plastic. (credit: Sanka Vidanagama | Getty Images) Like the ash spewed from a supervolcano, microplastics have infested the atmosphere and encircled the globe. These are bits of plastic less than 5 millimeters long, and they […]
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 Past projections of energy costs have consistently underestimated just how cheap renewable energy would be in the future, as well as the benefits of rolling them out quickly, according to a new report out of the Institute of New Economic Thinking at the University of Oxford. The report makes predictions about more than 50 […]
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 / The Stella Vita hits the road. (credit: Solar Team Eindhoven ) The creators of a new “self-sustaining house on wheels” are hoping their strange-looking project will help spark interest in solar vehicles. The vehicle, called the Stella Vita, was made by Eindhoven University of Technology students. Solar Team Eindhoven’s 22 members previously created […]
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 […]
Enlarge / Elon Musk in 2020. (credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Getty) Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that Tesla would stop taking bitcoin as payment for the company’s electric vehicles. The change comes less than two months after the automaker began accepting the cryptocurrency. Why the about-face? Musk now says he has concerns over bitcoin’s […]
Enlarge / What a difference a decade makes. Even though 2/3 of the data in the new normals is present in the previous ones, the last decade’s still been hot enough to drag the temperatures upwards. (credit: NOAA) On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a set of data it terms the […]
(credit: MIT News) Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law late last week one of the nation’s most sweeping climate bills, putting the state on a path to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The law sets emissions limits of 50% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 75% cuts by 2040 with interim limits every […]
Enlarge / Intense wildfires were one of the climate impacts linked to the recent string of very hot years. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images) Today, NASA and NOAA are announcing that 2020 was one for the record books, tying with 2016 for the warmest year since we’ve been tracking temperatures. NASA rates 2020 as the warmest ever, […]