Electronics
All Small Electronics Should Have the Same Charging Port, New E.U. Rule Says
In a bid to reduce waste, a proposed regulation would require phones and other small electronics to switch to USB-C
"Sustainability"
Agriculture
Living ‘Bee Fences’ Protect Farmers from Elephants, and Vice Versa
A string of hives between posts can fend off the pachyderms better than other deterrents, research shows
Oceans
Bringing Fisheries Back from the Brink
Marine biologist Daniel Pauly did a turnabout from helping fishing trawlers to fighting them. Can struggling fisheries now turn around?
Climate Change
Infrastructure Bill Could Cut Carbon Emissions By Nearly a Gigaton
Provisions in the reconciliation package working its way through Congress would help meet Biden’s climate pledge
Agriculture
In-Hive Sensors Could Help Ailing Bee Colonies
The technology could help beekeepers reduce short-term losses, but it doesn’t address long-term problems facing honeybees
Conservation
Indigenous Amazon Communities Fight Deforestation with New Early-Alert Tool
A pilot program reveals that deforestation declined when Peruvian Indigenous communities use an early-alert-system app to detect forest loss
Space & Physics
Forget Area 51
There are way more important planetary concerns to direct your attention to
IQ2O: Getting Smart About Water
The current state of our water supply has been called a crisis in slow motion, facing a perfect storm of higher demands from a growing population, changing weather patterns due to climate change and safety threats caused by decaying infrastructure...
Japan Now Has More EV Chargers Than Gas Stations
For any alternative fuel in transport, the key question is: what about infrastructure? As in, how much does infrastructure cost, what are the environmental effects, and who is actually going to pay for it?...
Indian Railways and Military Go Solar
There's been no shortage recently of big companies going big on solar, nor of middlemen trying to pave the way for bulk buying of solar power, but when the beast that is national procurement gets involved, the ante is upped...
A Tale of Two City-States
How Hong Kong and Singapore Went from Fishing Villages to Urban Lodestars I'm writing this on a flight from Hong Kong where news has just broken that the father of the Singaporean city-state Lee Kuan Yew has passed away...
The Overly Dramatic Demise of the Light Bulb
Remember when the fight against phasing out inefficient incandescent light bulbs was a big deal? Well it seems the sky didn't fall. Just recently, Canada joined the United States, the European Union, and Australia among several countries (see map below) to phase out the production and import of inefficient incandescent light bulbs...
Can Chinese Cities Turn Around Pollution in Time?
China became a mostly urban country in 2011, the service sector became the biggest in 2013, and in 2015 Chinese cities will try to reverse negative trends of sprawl and pollution.
New Mobility Startups Give Uber a Run for its Money
While terms like "smart grid" and "smart economy" are hard to peg down, we can at least say that for "smart mobility" we're starting to see some of the bluster turning into reality.
Renewable Energy Shines (and Blows) in 2014
Looking back at 2014 through the prism of renewable energy, it's hard not to get bombastic. So many records were broken, corners turned, and with costs declining, it's hard not to wonder if 2015 will see renewable energy become nothing more than a fully competitive energy source, capturing more and more market share...
After a 350 Year Reign, Heathrow Is Dethroned as the World's Busiest (Air)port
Is it Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, or Dubai International? Both apparently. But it depends on the metric. If you go by number of flights, then O'Hare is the world's busiest airport (881,933 flights in 2014), dethroning Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (868,359) after 10 years at the top - by this way of measuring...
The Road to Paris and COP-21
As 2015 begins, the road to the crucial COP-21 summit here in Paris (where I am based) is being outlined by the French government, the UN, and a huge number of other actors and NGOs.
Behind the Merger of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Carbon War Room - Interview with RMI's CEO Jules Koltenhorst
Today Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), brain-child of famed energy thinker Amory Lovins, and Carbon War Room (CWR), the five-year old climate change outfit of Sir Richard Branson, merged to create a new alliance dedicated to the acceleration of a low carbon energy future...
#MapMonday: ‘Map of Life’ Shows Hemorrhaging of Species
For this #MapMonday we return to Yale's Environmental Performance group, featured previously here on #MapMonday. The newly released biodiversity map brings together a whopping amount of data to detail the state (quality not just quantity) of species around the world, and while the staggering diversity of life on our planet is breathtaking (and sometimes pretty [...]..
Environment
Does Uber Make Cities More Energy Efficient?
It seems you can't read an article about new mobility or the sharing economy without stumbling across Uber; the mobility service that sprung up in 2009 to only five years later become valued at more than Avis, Hertz, or Sony...
