Ensia: Is it Time to Rethink Recycling?
Criticize recycling and you may as well be using a fume-spewing chainsaw to chop down ancient redwoods, as far as most environmentalists are concerned. But recent research into the environmental costs and benefits and some tough-to-ignore market realities have even the most ardent of recycling fans questioning the current system.
No one is saying that using old things to make new things is intrinsically a bad idea, but consensus is building around the idea that the system used today in the United States on balance benefits neither the economy nor the environment.
U.S. News and World Report: Sanders Makes Common Cause With Advocates for Nevada's Struggling Solar Industry
Bernie Sanders is making common cause with advocates for Nevada's struggling solar industry as the state's Democratic presidential contest approaches.
The Vermont senator met activists in Reno on Saturday and criticized a decision by Nevada regulators to increase rates for rooftop solar customers. He calls the decision "incomprehensible."
Solar companies in Nevada have been laying off workers because of the pending rate increase. Regulators decided Friday to introduce the higher rates more slowly.
The Telegraph: Will Humans Live Underwater in 100 Years Time?
One hundred years from now, the human population will be living in underwater cities and in 3-D-printed homes, according to a study that looks at the future of living.
Buildings and interiors will evolve into hyper-flexible spaces, with rooms able to change size and shape depending on how many people are in there at one time. Walls, ceilings and floors will have embedded technology that will allow the bedroom to become much smaller and the living room larger when having guests over, for example.
REW: Boeing Begins Microgrid Test for Reversible Fuel-Cell-Based Energy Storage System
Boeing has delivered a fuel-cell energy storage system to the U.S. Navy for testing that will determine the system’s ability to support the energy needs of military and commercial customers.
According to Boeing, the system is the first of its kind to use a technology called a reversible solid oxide fuel cell to store energy from renewable resources, such as wind and solar, to produce zero-emissions electricity.
Climate Progress: A Graphical Look at Presidents’ Environmental Records
On Sept. 17, 1969 -- nearly 47 years ago -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a high-ranking aide to President Richard M. Nixon, dispatched an internal memo to one of his White House colleagues warning of the ominous consequences of climate change. He predicted that the Earth would get so warm and sea levels so high, that it could be “Goodbye New York, Goodbye Washington.”
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere “has the effect of a pane of glass in a greenhouse,” and its unrelenting rise should “seize the imagination of persons normally indifferent to projects of apocalyptic change,” Moynihan wrote to John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s special assistant for domestic affairs. “The CO2 content is normally in a stable cycle, but recently man has begun to introduce instability through the burning of fossil fuels.”
For those who today recognize the dire consequences of climate change -- as the issue has finally achieved a high profile -- it might come as a surprise to learn about this early awareness. It shouldn’t. While Nixon and his aides certainly were prescient, they weren’t the only ones -- though presidents during those earlier times didn’t do much beyond talk about it.