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Climate Change, Nature & Environment February 14, 2020

Microsoft’s Moonshot Plan to Reverse Its Lifetime CO2 Emissions by 2050

The alarming headlines about Australia’s bush fires over the last couple weeks have heightened the global outcry over climate change, and companies, NGOs, and governments…

Articles Biomass Climate Change

The Great Biomass Boondoggle

The urgency of the climate crisis is inspiring some extreme and unproven ideas for how to hide carbon and cool the planet, such as ocean fertilization, turning CO2 into rocks, and seeding the atmosphere to dim the sun. Arguably one…

Articles Biofuels Climate Change

Brazil sugarcane growth can meet biofuel need and not drive deforestation

Sugarcane production in Brazil could expand by more than 5 million hectares (19,305 square miles) by 2030 to meet demand for ethanol biofuels, according to a study published in the journal Energy Policy — with potential impacts on the nation’s…

Articles Climate Change Renewables

Renewable fuels will not solve aviation’s climate dilemma

Powering aeroplanes with renewable fuels is crucial for making flying less climate-damaging, but it will get aviation nowhere near climate neutrality, environmental NGOs, industry representatives and researchers agreed at a conference in Berlin. They said that making synthetic fuels with…

Articles Innovation

Can mobile payment apps spur green living?

Ant Forest turns an Alipay user’s environmentally friendly actions into “green energy”, which they can then use to plant and nurture a virtual tree. When the tree reaches a certain size, Alipay will plant a real one. In September, Ant…

Articles Climate Change Fossil Fuels

UN report: Pollution from planned fossil fuel production would overshoot Paris climate goals

In the 2015 international Paris Climate Agreement, nearly every country [see editor’s note] agreed to try and limit global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit)…

Articles Climate Change Fossil Fuels Policy & Strategy

Using language to make the world of fossil fuels strange and ugly

They weren’t getting it. I had a room full of bright first-year university students in front of me, but confusion reigned as I tried to describe how embedded fossil fuels are in every aspect of society. “OK, let’s try this.…

Articles Coal Policy & Strategy

Winterproofing the grid

Winter came early for many Americans this year, as parts of the United States have already seen record-breaking cold weather in November. A dramatic new lexicon of polar vortices, bomb cyclones, and Arctic blasts is testament to the glacial cold…

Articles Climate Change

Are we ready for clean “meaters”?

Every year 66 billion animals are butchered for food. Predictions are that meat consumption will rise, with increasing demand for meat from China and other Asian countries as their standards of living increase. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation…

Articles Last Exit

Monteponi

Located in the outskirts of Iglesias (Sardinia, Italy), the Monteponi site has a unique place in the history of Italian mining activity. The operation began in the second half of the 19th century, and it became rapidly one of the…

Articles Innovation

Formula (ON)E

From now on it will be a two-horse race. Last December FIA (International Federation of the Automobile) decided to give world championship status to Formula E from 2020-21. An unprecedented move that means that there are now two single-seater racing…