Enlarge (credit: Aleksandr Potashev / iStock ) Gas-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers will soon be a thing of the past in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into legislation a bill that will ban the particular sale of small internal combustion engines predominately used in lawn and garden equipment, starting as soon as 2024. […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty) Bitcoin’s massive power consumption is the cryptocurrency’s dirty secret. To mine bitcoin, computers across the globe chew through enough electricity to power a medium size country, somewhere on the order of the Netherlands or Poland depending on the particular estimate. In fact, electricity has become such the significant factor […]
Enlarge / Widespread EV charging stations will be critical for New York to feasibly phase-out new fossil fuel vehicles by its 2035 deadline. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) New York will ban the sale of fossil fuel vehicles starting in 2035 and require all new cars to produce zero emissions. The new law, signed by Democratic […]
Enlarge / In this aerial photo of Greenidge Generation’s power plant outside Dresden, NY, Seneca Lake is visible in the background. The lake receives warm water from Greenidge’s operations. (credit: Greenidge Generation LLC ) The fossil fuel power plant that a private equity firm revived to mine bitcoin is at it again. Not content to […]
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 […]
Enlarge (credit: Jose Luis Stephens | Getty Images) To limit global warming to 1.5˚C by the end of the century, the world has to deploy clean technologies en masse while slashing investment in new oil, gas, and coal supplies, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency. Getting to net zero carbon emissions […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty) Few bitcoin projects illustrate the cryptocurrency’s enormous climate impact better than the Greenidge power plant in upstate New York. The once-abandoned power plant was bought by private equity firm Atlas Holdings and retasked. A significant portion of Greenidge’s electricity no longer powers nearby homes or businesses; rather, the plant’s […]
Even the Covid-19 pandemic was a catastrophe for most, a catastrophe for a lot more. It’s surpassed age-old inequities and also taken a significant toll on economic development. Its long-term impact in our lives remains uncertain, but that doubt should not induce migraines. This is sometimes a time for change, an opportunity to reset priorities. Climate […]