Solar panels and wind turbines give the world bountiful energy — but come with a conundrum. When it’s sunny and windy out, in many places these renewables produce more electricity than is actually needed at the time. Then when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing, those renewables provide...
Over 100 countries want an ambitious plastics treaty. Oil-producing nations are getting in the way.
What was supposed to be the final round of United Nations negotiations for a global plastics treaty ended without an agreement on Sunday, as delegates failed to reconcile opposing views on whether to impose a cap on plastic production. Another negotiating session — dubbed INC-5.2 after this week’s INC-5 —...
New technologies could refine the copper the world needs — without the dirty smelting
At a laboratory in Newark, New Jersey, a gray liquid swirls vigorously inside a reactor the size of a small watermelon. Here, scientists with the mining technology startup Still Bright are using a rare metal, vanadium, to extract a common one, copper, from ores that are too difficult or costly...
Protection of wetlands could come down to farmers, says a new report
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan. Tucked about a mile offshore from Lake Michigan, in northern Michigan’s Charlevoix County, sits Norwood Centennial Farms. Besides some 300 cows that live there, a creek and underground springs make up a wetland...
I’m grateful for a lot of things. But not Thanksgiving.
The vision “This one day a year doesn’t suffice for the gratitude and appreciation that we have for our plant, animal, water, and land relatives. Our way of life is a thanks giving, every day.” — Lucy Suppah, of the Native American Youth and Family Center The spotlight The further...
There’s a reason oil well sales are collapsing in California: Cleanup costs
For years, large drillers in California sold unprofitable wells to smaller companies willing to wring the last drops of oil out of them. The process essentially kicked the cost of cleaning up oil fields — pumping concrete down well bores, removing tanks and pipelines — to operators with less ability to...
At the final round of plastic treaty negotiations, a production cap hangs in the balance
Just a day after the conclusion of the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Azerbaijan, diplomats began convening in Busan, South Korea, for a separate bout of discussions — this time over plastics. The fifth and potentially final round of negotiations over a global plastics treaty began on Monday, with hopes...
Rampant consumerism is bad for the planet. ‘Underconsumption core’ offers an alternative.
The spotlight In one of Julie George’s most popular TikTok videos from this past summer, she highlights some of the quality items she owns and cherishes — a few nice pieces of jewelry, a single pair of Ray-Bans, a nearly empty bottle of YSL perfume. It feels luxe and aspirational,...
Reduce whale-ship strikes by making 2.6% of ocean surface safer, study says
Researchers identify collision hotspots around world but reveal almost all these lack preventive measures Collisions between whales and ships can prove fatal for the marine mammals, but researchers say expanding mitigation measures to just 2.6% of the ocean’s surface would reduce the chance of such strikes in all risk hotspots....
4,000-year-old canals used for fishing by Maya predecessors discovered in Belize
New research revealed canals used for about 1,000 years to channel and catch freshwater fish on the Yucatán peninsula Long before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America’s Yucatán peninsula. Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network...