“Renewable energy” is a misnomer. Wind and solar machines and batteries are built from nonrenewable materials. And they wear out. Old equipment must be decommissioned, generating millions of tons of waste. The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar goals for 2050 consistent with the Paris Accords will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than […]

 Cement’s contribution to emissions is especially immense because of the chemical process required to make it. About two-thirds of the polluting gases that come from cement production stem from burning limestone. Kilns are heated to more than 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,600 Fahrenheit), about four times hotter than a home oven set to the self-clean cycle. […]

A team of Guardian reporters in 11 countries has found: Last year, the equivalent of 68,000 shipping containers of American plastic recycling were exported from the US to developing countries that mismanage more than 70% of their own plastic waste. The newest hotspots for handling US plastic recycling are some of the world’s poorest countries, […]

The cruise industry is booming — but it is incredibly damaging to the environment. Most companies rely on dirty heavy oil, but some lines are taking a different approach. Can cruise ships become sustainable? When the Roald Amundsen launches on June 27, it will become the first hybrid-powered cruise ship in the world, propelled by […]

With Germany as inspiration, the United Nations and World Bank poured billions into renewables like wind, solar, and hydro in developing nations like Kenya. But then, last year, Germany was forced to acknowledge that it had to delay its phase-out of coal, and would not meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction commitments. It announced plans to bulldoze an […]

Many analysts claim that yet another such consequential energy revolution is upon us: “clean energy,” in the form of wind turbines, solar arrays, and batteries, they say, is about to become incredibly cheap, making it possible to create a “new energy economy.” Never mind that wind and solar—the focus of all “new energy economy” aspirations, […]

A report on the state of New Zealand’s environment has painted a bleak picture of catastrophic biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl Environment Aotearoa is the first major environmental report in four years and presents a sobering summary of a country that is starkly different from the […]

Environmental purity, not common sense, motivates the Golden State’s ban on bags, drinking straws, and cutlery. Shoppers flaunt their reusable bags (which might carry disease), big business parades its green credentials, and lawmakers seek the approval of likeminded thinkers by enacting bans.  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has become a rallying point for environmentalists, but it’s made up […]

Americans are consuming more and more stuff. Now that other countries won’t take our papers and plastics, they’re ending up in the trash. For decades, we were sending the bulk of our recycling to China—tons and tons of it, sent over on ships to be made into goods like shoes and bags and new plastic […]

“Independence of mind and climatology have become incompatible,” Judith Curry says. Do you mean that global warming isn’t real? I ask. “There is warming, but we don’t really understand its causes,” she says. “The human factor and carbon dioxide, in particular, contribute to warming, but how much is the subject of intense scientific debate.” Curry […]