Science and Technology:
¶ “The Hydrogen Fuel Cell Solution For A World Awash In Chicken Feathers” • Researchers found something to do with the millions of tonnes of chicken feathers produced annually. A team from two technological universities has applied a tailored form of keratin to make bio-based membranes for zero emission hydrogen fuel cells. [CleanTechnica]
The birds (Egor Myznik, Unsplash)
¶ “How We Know Past Climate Without Thermometers” • To figure out the global climate before thermometers, we need an understanding of geology and chemistry to decode the planet’s temperature in earlier times. Digging into coastal sediments and glaciers reveals mud and ice that is hundreds of thousands of years old. [The Daily Progress]
World:
¶ “Coffee Is In Danger. Starbucks Is Working On Solutions” • Coffee is a finicky crop, especially arabica coffee, the most popular type. Climate change poses a huge threat to the coffee business and to farmers. The Inter-American Development Bank warned that by 2050 “rising temperatures will reduce the area suitable for growing coffee by up to 50%.” [CNN]
Coffee beans (Rodrigo Flores, Unsplash)
¶ “Could The UK’s Tides Help Wean Us Off Fossil Fuels?” • Tidal power represents a huge store of renewable energy, and the UK, an island nation with some of the world’s most powerful tides, is uniquely well-placed to exploit that resource. Tidal power can store huge amounts of tidal energy, and the UK is uniquely well-placed to exploit that resource. [BBC]
¶ “Scania Unveils Cutting-Edge Battery-Electric Bus Platform At Busworld” • The new Scania battery-electric bus platform is a pivotal part of the company’s overall e-mobility portfolio. This groundbreaking platform offers low-entry 4×2 buses equipped with batteries giving it a range of over 500 km (310 miles) under optimal conditions. [CleanTechnica]
Scania’s latest BEV bus on display (Photo from Scania)
¶ “Hong Kong Needs More Renewable Power And Government Land Grants” • Limitations on using renewable power in Hong Kong present a major barrier to constructing data centres with low carbon footprint in the city amid rising energy consumption, according to a vice-president of a technology arm of Sun Hung Kai Properties. [South China Morning Post]
¶ “More Renewable Energy Loans For Community Projects” • Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia is in the news again funding two projects to support community organizations’ moves to renewables. It is giving interest-free renewable energy loans to a children’s family center in New South Wales and a theater in South Australia. [CleanTechnica]
Capri Theatre (Photo courtesy of CORENA)
¶ “Here’s Why A Giant, 2,361-Mile Cable Will Be Installed Under The Sea From Morocco To The UK” • The world’s longest subsea power cable, stretching 2,361 miles, is planned to supply clean energy from Morocco to the UK. According to Electrek, Xlinks was designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project to get it quick approvals. [Yahoo News New Zealand]
US:
¶ “Fossil-Free, 100% Affordable Housing Can Mean Residents Have No Utility Bills” • The US federal government announced awards of over $100 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Inflation Reduction Act to help renovate the homes of more than 1,500 low income families to be zero energy and climate resilient. [CleanTechnica]
Brewster Woods (Preservation of Affordable Housing image)
¶ “GasLeasks.Org Is Targeting Natural Gas Health Threats” • GasLeaks.org is on a mission to educate the public about natural gas and the happy talk the industry spreads about methane being clean burning. When it burns, methane does release less carbon dioxide than coal or oil derivatives. But methane leaks have big problems for other reasons. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Climate Change Decimated Alaska’s Snow Crab Population” • A group of NOAA scientists published a paper, “The collapse of eastern Bering Sea snow crab.” It explores the disappearance of 10 billion snow crabs from the Bering Sea between 2018 and 2021. It makes a convincing case that that 10 billion snow crabs were killed off by climate change.[InsideHook]
Steamed snow crab (donchili, CC-BY-SA 2.0, cropped)
¶ “Hopkinton Council Approves Solar Contract For Hopkinton PD, First Phase Of Energy Upgrades” • The town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island will move forward with installing solar panels on the Hopkinton Police Department, a move the Town Manager Brian Rosso said would save the community almost $10,000 in the first year and more after that. [Westerly Sun]
¶ “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Nearly $2 Billion In Funding To Increase Climate Resilience” • Officers of Homeland Security, FEMA, and the White House announced that FEMA is making $1.8 billion available for grant programs designed to help communities increase resilience to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather. [Homeland Security Today]
Lightning (NOAA, Unsplash)
¶ “Navigator Cancels Proposed Midwestern CO₂ Pipeline, Citing ‘Unpredictable’ Regulatory Processes” • A company said it would cancel its plans for a 1,300-mile (2,092-km) pipeline across five Midwestern states that would have gathered the carbon dioxide emissions from several ethanol plants and buried the gas deep underground. [MPR News]
¶ “Democratic Governors Block Bills For New Nuclear Power Plants” • In the last three months, the Democratic governors of Illinois and North Carolina vetoed bills to build new reactors in their states, warning that doing so would divert money and attention from a strategy of using renewable energy backed up, at least for now, with natural gas. [Yahoo News]
Have an agreeably effortless day.
geoharvey 