Carbon dioxide emissions stemming from fossil fuel use in the European Union rose by around 1.8% in 2017 as compared to 2016, according to the most recent estimates from Eurostat. Despite fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide emissions as a whole rising in the European Union during 2017, the split across countries was by no means
Last month, a three-member high court panel in Pakistan, composed of some of the country’s top judges, issued a court ruling that ordered the government there to document in detail the efforts being made to curb the growing air pollution problems there. The head of the three-member high court panel in question, Chief Justice Mian
Rachel Carson’s influential book Silent Spring, which documented the effects of the indiscriminate widespread use of pesticides on the environment, was published back in 1962, nearly 60 years ago now. Since that time, the book has often been cited as one of the drivers behind environmental action and regulation of various kinds. Following the release,
The processes by which fertile topsoil is created are slow ones, to put it in mild terms. Generally speaking, the timespans necessary to turn glacial rock dust into something that agricultural crops can possibly grow in aren’t relevant when considered from the perspective of what’s needed to plant this year’s crops. The processes by which
Owing to the aim of reducing air pollution and local auto accidents, cars will be banned this summer from New York City’s Central Park — after more than a century of free use — the city’s mayor Bill de Blasio has announced. So, to say that a different way, New York City’s Central Park will
The on-demand taxi service provider Lyft is launching a new program whereby the carbon emissions footprints of the rides it provides will be offset through investments into various “green” offsets — renewable energy projects, reforestation work, etc. — a company spokesperson has revealed.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has reached an agreement with constituent countries to put a plan into place to reduce the shipping sector’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2050, as compared to 2008 levels. The deal follows international talks this week in London between reps from relevant countries. Notably, the final deal
The Boring Co has raised $112.5 million in new equity, the company has revealed — with 90% of that figure coming by way of Elon Musk himself. The revelation comes as the company has seemingly begun ramping up its plans to bore and develop underground transportation tunnels between various large metropolitan areas in the USA.
Deepwater oil and gas exploration off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast is now slated to be resumed by Royal Dutch Shell after a fairly long pause, the company’s Executive Vice President Sami Iskander was quoted recently as saying at a press conference on the matter. Owing to faltering oil production and rising energy imports, the government of
While most people like to place all of the blame for the recent about-face that the US Environmental Protection Agency has done with regard to pollutions controls on President Donald Trump, the reality is that there’s a broad amount of support for such actions throughout the government. With that in mind, the US Senate has
In an announcement that mostly just amounts to a milking circumstance for PR purposes, the current administration in New Zealand has announced that it won’t be granting any new offshore oil and gas exploration permits or holding an associated tender process. To explain that a bit more, owing to relatively low global oil prices in
An enormous $44 billion combined oil mega-refinery and petrochemicals complex is now in the works for development on the west coast of India. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was just signed between Saudi Aramco and a large consortium of India-based firms. Those involved in the consortium just mentioned — Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (RRPCL)
Various sources within Germany have been reporting in recent days that Volkswagen is now mulling the replacement of CEO Matthias Mueller with the head of the VW brand, Herbert Diess. The idea is reportedly to start fresh after the latest round of scandals related to diesel vehicle emissions. Mueller’s contract as CEO at Volkswagen had
The embattled on-demand taxi service firm Uber has announced that it has acquired the electric bike-sharing service startup JUMP Bikes, marking the company’s further investment into the on-demand mobility services sector.
There are a set number of ways that a deck of cards can be dealt out. As you see the cards being dealt, you’re in fact watching possibilities being destroyed and inevitabilities arising. What exactly those inevitabilities are, depends upon the cards that you have just witnessed being dealt. The deck as a whole could
We published an article recently that touched on the possible effects that the internet and smartphones seem to be having on the ability to think, or to function effectively as voters in a “democracy.” While I don’t disagree — smartphones are the real-life version of soma, as predicted by Huxley in Brave New World — that
Despite the presence of a record number of people working to count the insects, this year’s population census for monarch butterflies wintering in California has fallen to a 5-year low, according to a new report.
The city of Katowice in Poland has begun using drones outfitted with various air quality sensors as a means of locating illegal emissions sources — and thus as a way of locating otherwise hard to locate offenders.
The Trump Administration decision to rescind the requirement of an earlier settlement that would have seen Harley-Davidson required to spend $3 million on air pollution reduction work — relating to the earlier marketing of illegal after-market devices/tuners — is now being challenged by a coalition of 10 US states and the District of Columbia.
The recent (and ongoing) occurrence of dangerously high air pollution levels in the city of Pristina in Kosovo triggered a ban of cars from the city center, and a fairly large protest (for the country) as well, according to recent reports.
The world’s coral reefs are being sickened by plastic and micro-plastic pollution and debris — everywhere from the Great Barrier Reef to the Caribbean — according to a new study published in the journal Science.
Aluminum production has now begun at Hydro’s HAL4e-process pilot facility in Karmøy (Norway). The Hydro-developed HAL4e aluminum production process will reportedly allow for 15% less energy use, and a much lower carbon footprint.
Danone’s widely distributed Evian brand of bottle water will have transitioned to 100%-recycled plastic use by 2025, if recent announcements from company execs are to be believed.
Pope Francis recently gave a passionate call for the Amazon to be protected from big business and “consumerist greed” — while in Peru, on a tour of Latin America.
Five of the world’s largest oil companies are now in the process of being sued by New York City for their “contributions to global warming,” Comptroller Scott Stringer has revealed. The companies in question are: Chevron, BP, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips — arguably the 5 top oil firms in the world that
An ocean dead zone is an area where there is not enough oxygen dissolved in the water to allow aquatic creatures to breath. To put it in perspective, imagine a person locked in a sealed chamber in which the level of oxygen is slowly but steadily decreased until they lie gasping for breath until they
The lawsuit that was filed by environmental groups in response to Norway’s announcement of plans to continue oil exploration in the Arctic has been dismissed by a court in Oslo. What that means is that the court ruled that the argument that such oil exploration was in violation of “people’s right to a healthy environment”
How much longer does southern Florida have until real-estate values in the region collapse on the back of flagging demand? At some point the reality that the region is not long for this world will have to sink in, and when it does, demand for homes in the region will crater to a degree that
A federal audit has found that India’s government has only spent well under a quarter of the funds available to it for cleaning up the Ganges River over the last 2 years – with the audit determining that poor financial management and planning were then primary causes. To provide specifics, the audit — performed by
A Switzerland-based consumer protection group has filed a new lawsuit against Volkswagen on behalf of 6,000 owners of diesel cars manufactured by the company in relation to the “Dieselgate” emissions scandal. The organization, SKS, isn’t actually just seeking damages from Volkswagen, it should be noted, but also from the Swiss car dealer AMAG, reportedly. Also
Much of the Middle East is now slated to essentially turn to desert over the coming decades and centuries owing to climate change, and exacerbated by poor human judgment and short-sighted activities. It bears remembering that much of what is now the Middle East and the Mediterranean was before the human population expansion of the
Fiat Chrysler lawyers are now holding discussions with lawyers representing various owners and owners groups of diesel vehicles in the US that are in the process of suing the prominent auto manufacturer, in relation to allegations of excess emissions in old diesel models. The news — revealed by a court-appointed adviser at a hearing in
The air pollution problems facing Iran, in particular those facing the country’s populous capital Tehran, seem to be growing rapidly based on recent events. As the result of dangerous levels of air pollution, schools in Tehran and in many other large cities throughout the country as well, were closed last week state media reported at
The coastline of Kenya has been a hotspot for tourism and fishing activities for a quite a while now — with the region also being home to fair numbers of sea turtles. Recent years, though, have made the region home to significant quantities of plastic trash and debris — much of which eventually washes into
The growing use of heavy oils, tar sands, bitumen, petroleum coke, etc., by industry since 2000 or so has resulted in rapidly surging levels of vanadium emissions, according to a new study from Duke University. To be more specific, human-related emissions of vanadium now surpass those of natural sources by a factor of 1.7 —
Micro plastics are now present in large quantity in essentially all of the world’s water. As a result, they are also present in a fast-growing proportion of the world’s drinking water and food as well. To quantify that to some degree — previous studies have found micro plastic pollution in mussels (a type of shellfish)
Originally published on EV Obsession. Ontario, the most populous province in Canada, will be introducing a new electric truck rebate program — designed to provide up to 60% of the incremental purchase cost of an electric truck, as compared to a conventional diesel equivalent. There’s an upper limit of CAD$75,000 per unit. The aim of
Originally published on EV Obsession. One of the largest package delivery companies in the world, UPS (United Parcel Service Inc), has placed a pre-order for 125 units of the recently unveiled Tesla Semi Truck, the company has revealed. The new reservations constitute the largest pre-order of the Tesla Semi to date — with the order eclipsing
As we reported recently, an ex-security analyst at Uber had written a letter to the company’s in-house lawyer back in May that spoke of a unit that existed “expressly for the purpose of acquiring trade secrets, codebase, and competitive intelligence,” and also of a separate unit that “frequently engages in fraud and theft.” Uber execs
A new recall of diesel-powered Volkswagen Touareg SUVs, due to the presence of illegal “defeat devices” intended to defraud regulators, has been ordered by Germany’s auto industry watchdog the KBA reportedly. Apparently 2 separate “illicit emissions control devices” have been discovered in the newest generation of 3-liter diesel Volkswagen Touaregs — with the recall relating
The China-based auto manufacturer BAIC Motor Corp is now aiming to cease sale of its self-developed and self-branded conventionally powered cars by 2025, China Daily has reported. “On the morning of December the 9th, 2017 at the inauguration of the Beijing New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Centre, the president of BAIC Group promised to end the sales
The German luxury auto manufacturer BMW has denied allegations from the environmental group DUH that engine management software cut power to a system filtering nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions during real-world road testing of a 3-Series diesel car — thus allowing for NOx emissions some 7 times higher than the legal limit. The German environmental group’s
Norway, which is still a monarchy, has two sovereign wealth funds. The Government Pension Fund Global, also known as the Oil Fund, was established in 1990 to invest the profits from the country’s petroleum sales. As of September of this year, it was valued at more than $1 trillion, equal to $192,307 per Norwegian citizen. The other
A new report released by a groups of over 50 US government scientists asserts that the rapid pace at which modern climate change is occurring is almost definitely driven by human activity — making for a blunt contradiction of the stance taken by many members of the current administration of President Donald Trump. In particular,
There’s been more than $3.3 billion in insured losses caused by the wildfires in California so far this year, with the figure expected to rise, the California Department of Insurance has revealed. Those figures relate only to the claims reported so far this year, by 15 insurers that are active in California — so, the
The US Environmental Protection Agency will begin barring select scientists from serving on independent advisory boards — a move possibly intended to clear the path towards the installation of industry-friendly advisors on the panel in question, according to critics. The new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ban-list is focused on scientists who have won agency-awarded grants
Atmospheric methane levels rose fairly rapidly in 2016, as did atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (which saw the yearly average rise up to 403.3 parts per million), according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Image: methane leaks in Boston, via Duke University The scientists involved in the report claim to not know
Australia’s largest cities could begin experiencing extreme heatwaves with +50° Celsius temperatures within the relatively near term (within the next ~20 years), even if international climate change and greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals are met, according to a recent study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. To be more specific, the recent study dealt
