By Ryan Johnson From monitoring deforestation to designing low-carbon materials The AI renaissance of recent years has led many to ask how this technology can help with one of the greatest threats facing humanity: climate change. A new research paperauthored by some of the field’s best-known thinkers aims to answer this question, giving a number […]

By Ryan Johnson A group of leading business have launched a global initiative aimed at jumpstarting the plastics circular economy. During the first episode of the BBC’s long-awaited series War on Plastic, television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and presenter Anita Rania shed new light on how vast our plastic problem has become. In one of the starker moments of […]

By Ryan Johnson When I worry about the Amazon Rainforest, I typically worry about deforestation. Maybe I should start worrying about climate change, too. A new study out Monday shows that climate change plus deforestation equals disaster for the Amazon: The average number of tree species present in a given patch of rainforest could decline […]

By Christopher Thompson Every stage of the plastic lifecycle releases harmful carbon emissions into the atmosphere, contributing to global heating Plastics are among the most ubiquitous materials in our economy, our lives, and our environment. They are also among the most pervasive and persistent pollutants on Earth. In recent years, stark images of beaches, waterways […]

By Ryan Johnson Ghost nets float throughout the world’s oceans. The abandoned fishing gear travels with the currents, trapping marine life along the way, polluting the waters and killing dolphins, sea turtles, and fish. Now a recent haul in the Pacific shows there may be an effective way to pick up this trash relatively rapidly. […]

By Christopher Thompson The textile industry has had a reputation for massive waste and water usage for years, but a focus on moving away from fast fashion, the textile industry could become more sustainable. Everything we buy has to end up somewhere, right? We all know waste is a problem. And yet single-use consumerism has […]

By Ryan Johnson We make good-faith efforts to help the planet by recycling, but what we really need to do is even simpler Вid you ever decide to get off a jammed freeway and take the backroads even though deep down you knew that it wouldn’t be any faster? Are you constantly switching to the […]

By Christopher Thompson With the impacts of a warming planet becoming more apparent every day, climate change is taking center stage in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Most of the candidates have articulated commitments or released plans to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions through legislation, administrative actions, international diplomacy and other initiatives. […]

By Ryan Johnson When Cleveland’s Cuyahoga caught fire, it was as much about urban blight as environmental crisis. It was like a game of telephone. In the first whispers, which appeared in local newspapers on June 23, 1969, Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River didn’t burn. A floating oil slick did, for only 25 minutes, damaging a couple […]

By Christopher Thompson  Almost half of packaging used by supermarkets cannot be recycled, an investigation has found. Which? – a company which studies and tests the things we buy – looked at the packaging of 46 of the most popular items from 11 supermarkets. The average percentage of packaging – including cardboard, glass and plastics […]