Bloomberg: 95% of China's Electric Vehicle Startups Face Wipeout
China’s electric-vehicle industry, with 200-plus companies backed by a raft of billionaires, verges on a massive shakeout as the government imposes stricter technology standards on fledgling manufacturers and considers limiting their number to only 10.
Any curbs would be aimed at weeding out the weak, said a senior executive with the state-backed auto manufacturers’ association, and they may push as many as 90 percent of EV startups toward extinction, a government-linked newspaper said. So far, only two ventures have obtained approval to build cars, based on a review of National Development and Reform Commission documents. Three others say they plan to apply for permits.
Vox: California Is About to Find Out What a Truly Radical Climate Policy Looks Like
Within the United States, California is No. 1 (by far) in solar power and No. 3 in wind power. It boasts the third-lowest carbon dioxide emissions per capita behind New York and Vermont. Since 2000, the state has managed to shrink its overall carbon footprint slightly even as its population grew and economy boomed.
But now California is taking on a far, far more audacious task: trying to prove to the world that it’s possible -- desirable, even -- to pursue the really drastic emission cuts needed to stave off severe global warming.
The state is already on track to nudge its greenhouse-gas emissions back down to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Then last week, after much fierce debate, the California Assembly and Senate passed a new bill, known as SB 32, that would go much further, mandating an additional 40 percent cut in emissions by 2030
Electrek: Tesla Will Soon Introduce New Autopilot Safety Functions
After the recent and widely covered series of Tesla accidents while on Autopilot, Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about focusing on better educating Tesla owners on how to use Autopilot features. Last month, he mentioned an upcoming blog post to highlight “how Autopilot works as a safety system and what drivers are expected to do after they activate it.”
We have yet to see that blog post, but now Electrek has learned that Tesla will introduce new Autopilot safety restrictions in order to reduce the risk of similar accidents happening again. Tesla owners are often wary of new Autopilot restrictions. They feel like Tesla is rolling back features that they have paid for, but they shouldn’t worry about the new restrictions, since they will not really affect owners using the system properly.
Nature World News: Scientists Create '4-D Printing' Useful for Solar Energy and Aerospace
Objects created through the 3-D printing process may be extremely versatile. However, once the printing is done, the objects are limited to one form. The new advancement in 3-D printing discovered by scientists hopes to change this. Through 4-D printing, objects can change shape once subject to electricity, light or heat.
The new process called 4-D printing would greatly help in a number of scientific fields, including aerospace and solar energy. Changes in the shape of the objects printed through 4D printing are made possible through "shape-memory polymers." These polymers have the ability to "remember their original shape even after the shape has been radically distorted."
Science: Just 90 Companies Are to Blame for Most Climate Change, Says This 'Carbon Accountant'
Richard Heede has compiled a massive database quantifying who has been responsible for taking carbon out of the ground and putting it into the atmosphere. Working alone, with uncertain funding, he spent years piecing together the annual production of every major fossil fuel company since the Industrial Revolution and converting it to carbon emissions.
Heede's research shows that nearly two-thirds of anthropogenic carbon emissions originated in just 90 companies and government-run industries. Among them, the top eight companies -- ranked according to annual and cumulative emissions below -- account for 20 percent of world carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement production since the Industrial Revolution. Click on the "play" button to play through the animated graphics. To view a specific year, pause the animation and hover over the individual charts (or tap on the charts if you are using a mobile device).