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, has reached carbon neutrality across all of its 20 factories. It will focus on supply chain emissions next, which are a bigger problem and a trickier one to solve.
I wrote about AI and capitalism recently, which highlighted the reality that AI isn’t good or bad in itself. The important question is who it serves. You can put it to work reducing emissions, or you can put to uses that increase them. Here’s a story about how the oil industry is optimising production with AI tools, which could increase global emissions by 5%. On the other hand, AI is being used to detect and report methane leaks so that they can be fixed faster.
My garden is the colour of straw this summer, after five heatwaves and a drought in the UK. So I noted this article on how rewilded land is proving more resilient to drought. This is about a single project, and I’d be interested to know if the effects are widespread.
Along similar lines, here’s a fascinating study from Washington State that shows how nature restoration can have unexpected linkages: the presence of cougars in the landscape reduces car accidents caused by deer by 76%.
Recent highlights
Why EV battery swapping matters
Octopus, the UK’s leading green energy supplier, recently announced a move into trucking. Partnering with Chinese battery company CATL, they’re planning a network of battery swapping stations for trucks. It will be called Swaptopus – of course it will – and the first one will open next year. Eventually there will be a network of…
The age of solar power is here
This week I read about a 70MW solar farm that has just opened in Lapland in Northern Finland. Not so long ago this would have sounded like madness. Even with the benefit of 22 hours of sunshine in the summer, solar power this far north would not have made sense. PV panels are now so…
Positive travel experiences with Flight Free Schools
Last week I wrote about the expansion of Luton Airport and the vast increase in emissions that would come with it. This week I thought I’d post something more solutions-focused about aviation. The government is will do anything for economic growth and won’t stand in the way of growth in flying. That puts the attention…
The Earthbound Report 