Porto Flavia: where wilderness meets design
“This is not a coal mine but a sea harbour,” this is how the Sardinian Geopark guides typically introduce Porto Flavia to tourists and visitors….
Articles
Cyber-crime is smarter than energy
With the proliferation of smart grids, smart meters, “digital coal mine” and “digital oil fields,” the global energy sector is becoming increasingly interconnected, automated and…
Plastic is here, there and everywhere
It had to happen sooner or later: the ocean contains plastic, the fish contain plastic, and now the plastic also arrives in the water we…
…From little acorns grow
Despite over ten years of trying, and numerous political initiatives at the national and EU level, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has yet to take…
São Domingos
The São Domingos Mine is an abandoned open-pit mine in Alentejo’s Corte do Pinto, the first place in Portugal to have electric lighting. The Romans mined in the São Domingos area…
Ozone pollution in US national parks is nearly the same as in large cities
“Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue” John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra (1911) Most…
Dallol
Dallol is a village located in the Danakil Desert, northern Ethiopia. Known as the hottest place year-round on Earth, Dallol holds the official record for…
How land under solar panels can contribute to food security
At a recent solar energy conference in Minneapolis, attendees unwound at happy hour tasting free pints of a local honey-based India Pale Ale called “Solarama…
Mapped: The US nuclear power plants ‘at risk’ of shutting down
Nuclear power plants generate more than half of the US’s low-carbon electricity. However, record low gas prices associated with the US fracking boom have made…
Australia is running out of fuel
Last week, it emerged that Australia was just 43 days away from completely running out of fuel. That would mean people aren’t able to fill…
Oceania: the politicians fiddle, the Pacific burns
It was a black moment, standing before the Australian parliament clasping a lump of coal in a pose of denunciation. Scott Morrison made headlines with…
The Great Inequity of Climate Change
Climate change is a multifaceted phenomenon but is also iniquitous. It affects the most disadvantaged countries harder. In a papal encyclical letter called “Laudato Si”…
Ice melting is too silent to disturb policy makers’ sleep
In the Paris Climate Agreement, where member states agreed to limit the increase in average global temperature to values significantly lower than 2 degrees Celsius…
Planet or plastic?
Out of sight, out of mind, they say. I’m originally from Finland, a country that prides itself on having the purest air in the world,…
Grass Lawns are an Ecological Catastrophe
Are American lawns beautiful visions of nature? Or ecological calamities? Unfortunately, the grass leaves in our parks leave havoc in their wake. Lawns are extremely…
Let’s follow new zealand’s lead and make people and nature as important as gdp
By requiring planners to consider impacts on society and the environment as well as economics, New Zealand is setting a much-needed example for other nations….