[Source: Forbes] Electric vehicles (EV) are all the rage these days. They are, according to President Biden and much of the media, a crucial part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving the environment. Federal and state subsidies have long encouraged their use. The president in his infrastructure proposals would increase that encouragement by building some Read More…
Category: World News
Why manufacturing matters to economic superpowers
[Source: Financial Times] Manufacturing matters. While it has become increasingly automated and globalised over the past several decades, it still holds a special place in the national psyche in the US and other big exporting nations, such as Germany, China and Japan. Part of that is down to its disproportionate benefits to the economy. In Read More…
Will the race for electric vehicles endanger the Earth’s most sensitive ecosystem?
[Source: EcoWatch by The Revelator] The internal combustion engine had a good run. It helped get us to where we need to go for more than a century, but its days as the centerpiece of the automotive industry are waning. As countries work to cut greenhouse gas emissions, electrification is stealing the limelight. While there’s Read More…
Fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere
[Source: OilPrice.com] “There is no scenario where hydrocarbons disappear,” the chief executive of Baker Hughes, Lorenzo Simonelli, said during his keynote speech at this year’s annual meeting in the company. Like other executives from the industry, Simonelli acknowledged and welcomed the energy transition, but he noted that a 100-percent renewable energy scenario was simply not Read More…
Cutting concrete’s carbon footprint
[Source: GTM GreenTech Media] After years of slow headway, building design and industry professionals say sharp reductions in the climate impact of concrete are possible now. That is significant because cement, the critical glue that holds concrete together, is so carbon-intensive that if it were a country, it would rank fourth in the world as Read More…
After a century of growth, have carbon emissions reached their peak?
[Source: GRIST] In late March, approximately a third of the world’s population found themselves under some kind of stay-at-home order due to COVID-19. The effects were dramatic: Virtually overnight, bumper-to-bumper traffic gave way to empty roads; bustling airports became echoing ghost towns; retail stores and restaurants closed their doors and turned off the lights. And Read More…
In landmark ruling, air pollution recorded as a cause of death for British girl
[Source: The New York Times] A 9-year-old girl who suffered a fatal asthma attack in 2013 became the first person in Britain to officially have air pollution listed as a cause of death, a British official said. The landmark ruling puts a face and a name on one of the millions of people whose deaths Read More…
Emissions are surging back as countries and states reopen
[Source: New York Times] After a drastic decline this spring, global greenhouse gas emissions are now rebounding sharply, scientists reported, as countries relax their coronavirus lockdowns and traffic surges back onto roads. It’s a stark reminder that even as the pandemic rages, the world is still far from getting global warming under control. In early Read More…
Why coronavirus could hit small businesses the hardest
[Source: Yahoo Finance] Keeping the U.S. economy on its feet as coronavirus pervades American borders is up to consumers and how much they’re willing to go out and spend, especially at small and midsize businesses, supply chain management expert Hitendra Chaturvedi says. Chaturvedi, a professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, said Read More…