A record month for solar and wind power in the UK saved £1 billion in gas costs and the equivalent of 18 LPG tankers, currently stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. While you’re visiting Carbon Brief for that story, have a look at their broader work on Trump’s Iran crisis and how countries are responding. They’ve been busy.
“When America goes to war, the costs are distributed broadly, onto every American who drives a car or heats a home. The benefits are distributed narrowly, flowing to a small group of men whose compensation is designed to capture exactly this kind of windfall.” Emily Atkin on how oil executives profit directly from war.
I made a passing mention of how refills have failed to go mainstream in the UK in a post this week. Until they do, refill shops are holding a space for those wanting to bring their own containers, and Recycle Now just launched a refill locator to find your nearest shop. Still none near me.
The story of the fishing industry off the US West Coast demonstrates how fish stocks can recover when you just leave them alone. Having collapsed entirely by 2000, today it has a smaller and sustainable fishing industry.
Scientists have discovered that data centers produce so much waste heat that they can create local micro-climates and heat island effects. More reasons why we should locate them in cold places, and capture and use that heat.
It’s been a quiet couple of weeks round here with the Easter holidays and my writing time directed to other things, but here are some recent articles.
Recent highlights
Book review: Lifehouse, by Adam Greenfield
Books on climate change have gone through several phases over the last twenty years. There were the awareness raising books, then the alarm ringing ones as those were ignored. Then came the climate grief and anxiety books. On the other side of all three of those previous waves, there’s demand for something practical. Given that…
Who leads the world in carbon drawdown from forests?
If you asked me to name some forested countries, I’d think of Canada and Russia, Scandinavia, Brazil. If I had to guess which country removes the most carbon from the atmosphere through its forests, I’d probably name one of them. And I’d be wrong. Carbon Brief recently published an article on why global land use…
What we learned this week
I’ve always enjoying seeing neighbouring houses with solar panels, and knowing that one person’s actions have inspired those around them. That effect has now been researched and quantified, should you be interested in the exact likelihood of someone installing solar if their neighbours do. Chinese battery maker CATL, the world’s largest supplier of EV batteries,…
The Earthbound Report 