"Agriculture is often seen as the enemy of biodiversity, but in an excerpt from her new book Sophie Yeo explains how techniques from the middle ages allow plants and animals to flourish".
Plans for two new U.S. facilities that will use hydrogen instead of coal to make steel hold the promise of decarbonizing this essential but dirty industry. But don’t expect overnight change. Reporter Maria Gallucci looks at the complexities of making the switch, from ditching the blast furnace to reducing pollution all along the supply chain.
"The U.S. government has a specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors that officials brag is always ready to deploy within an hour of any kind of chemical disaster. But the plane didn’t fly over eastern Ohio until four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment there last year."
"The Biden administration moved Tuesday to block China’s access to the American market for clean energy technology by doubling duties on solar cells and effectively quadrupling the price of electric vehicles from China."
"Fifty countries are meeting in France on Tuesday to discuss the lack of access to clean cooking methods worldwide which causes millions of deaths every year and fuels global warming."
"In recent years, these data centers have been rapidly expanding in the United States. But the gargantuan facilities do more than keep cloud servers running — they also guzzle absurd amounts of water to run cooling systems that protect their components from overheating."
"The White House has unveiled tighter rules for research on potentially dangerous microbes and toxins, in an effort to stave off laboratory accidents that could unleash a pandemic."
"They’re delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other states. And the technology is expanding rapidly."
"The automaker led by Elon Musk is no longer planning to take the lead in expanding the number of places to fuel electric vehicles. It’s not clear how quickly other companies will fill the gap."
For all the talk about the energy transition and the robust growth in electric vehicle sales, there’s one big reason for unease: getting charged. The new Backgrounder takes a deep dive on the state of EV charging stations in the United States, exploring Tesla’s diminishing dominance, coming charger standardization, charging levels, software and for-pay realities, plus the effects of government policy.
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