The U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla suspended its plans to accept Bitcoin as a payment method, CEO Elon Musk announced in a Twitter statement late Wednesday. Musk, who has become notorious for moving the price of cryptocurrencies via tweets, cited the massive amount of energy required to keep Bitcoin running and its environmental impacts as […]
The threat of a catastrophic failure unleashing a 20-foot wall of industrial wastewater over nearby homes and businesses in Piney Point, Florida, illustrates the danger of widespread reliance on industrial waste ponds across the U.S., The New York Times reports. Many of these ponds, filled with toxic and sometimes radioactive, byproducts of climate-change causing activity […]
By Tara Lohan Mined lands reclaimed for biking trails, office parks — even a winery. Efforts like these are already underway in Appalachia to reclaim the region’s toxic history, restore blighted lands, and create economic opportunities in areas where decades-old mines haven’t been properly cleaned up. The projects are sorely needed. And so are many […]
Art Zilleruelo’s poetry is often inspired by nature. Growing up, he wandered the hills of rural Pennsylvania. “It’s still possible to do things like get lost in the woods here if you want to,” he says. “It’s still possible to find places where the night sky is completely unpolluted by artificial light.” But the region […]
On Friday, China set out an economic blueprint for the next five years, which was expected to substantiate the goal set out last fall by President Xi Jinping for the country to reach net-zero emissions before 2060 and hit peak emissions by 2030. While the plan calls for a “major push” on clean energy development, […]
As bitcoin’s fortunes and prominence rise, so do concerns about its environmental impact. The process of mining the cryptocurrency is enormously energy intensive, so much so that it consumes more electricity in a year than Argentina or the Ukraine, according to the latest data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. Its energy hunger even […]
By David Drake and Jeffrey York The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The Big Idea People often point to plunging natural gas prices as the reason U.S. coal-fired power plants have been shutting down at a faster pace in recent years. However, new research shows two other forces had a […]
Nearly 5 million electricity customers across the United States lost power over the weekend as extreme weather, including frigid temperatures and ice storms, drove up demand and shut down electricity generation. The widespread outages underscore the vulnerability of the power grid to extreme weather events made more frequent, powerful, and unpredictable by climate change. “I […]
By Mark McCord An academic paper suggests key tipping points can significantly reduce carbon emissions, which would help to slow global warming. Government policies are making coal uneconomical. Electric vehicle pricing structures have helped reduce the number of petrol and diesel cars on the world’s roads. There may be light at the end of the […]