Species of Tuna
Want proof that reductions in coal burning are starting to make a difference? Look no further than the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A new study finds that the levels of mercury in these popular fish declined by about 19 percent between 2004 and 2012.
Tuna still contains pretty high mercury levels, the study found, so those health risks have not vanished. They have, however, slightly lessened.
The study’s senior author, Nicholas Fisher of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said tuna is the “largest pathway for mercury exposure […]
A couple of dozen solar panels sit atop a picnic shelter at a neighborhood park in Seattle.
Credit: Seattle CIty Light
Traditionally, energy systems flowed in one direction: from big power producers to consumers. Now, with more people getting rooftop solar panels, they’re increasingly two-way: homes send excess power back to utilities, reducing their household bills. In the future, we may see a third change: people trading power not only with utilities, but also with each other.
Several startups are now working on the trading aspect, including Power Ledger in Western Australia. It’s launched trials based on blockchain technology, which offers an inviolable internet-based record of transactions as they take place. Blockchain came to prominence with the bitcoin virtual currency, but increasingly it’s being used to track and authenticate all kinds of asset trading, from stocks and bonds to electrons.
“The energy system used to be linear: energy flowed from distant generators to consumers via long networks […]
After fueling the 20th century automobile culture that reshaped cities and defined modern life, gasoline has had its day.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that global gasoline consumption has all but peaked as more efficient cars and the advent of electric vehicles from new players such as Tesla Motors Inc. halt demand growth in the next 25 years. That shift will have profound consequences for the oil-refining industry because gasoline accounts for one in four barrels consumed worldwide.
“Electric cars are happening,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in an interview in London, adding that their number will rise from little more than 1 million last year to more than 150 million by 2040.
People holds hands looking at post-election Post-it notes pasted along a tiled walk at Union Square subway station in New York U.S., November 14, 2016.
Credit:Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
NEW YORK ― In light of the uptick in acts of hate since Donald Trump was elected last week, one New Yorker decided to harness the power of social media to enlist people to accompany their neighbors on their commutes.
Kayla Santosuosso, deputy director of the Arab American Association of New York, received a message about a woman who was being harassed and threatened on the subway. “She was seeking someone to commute along with her,” Santosuosso told The Huffington Post. So she put up a Facebook post asking if anyone would be willing to help out.
Santosuosso assumed only a handful of friends would respond, but the next thing she knew, tons of people were messaging her, asking to […]
President-elect Donald Trump stands with Betsy DeVos after their meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Saturday.
Credit: Mike Segar/Reuters
School-choice philanthropist Betsy DeVos is set to become Donald Trump’s secretary of education. The school choice movement that Trump has embraced is bipartisan; centrist Democrats and Republicans both tend to support public charter schools. But DeVos, a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, represents the most conservative corner of the movement. She and her husband have funded a series of efforts to turn public school funding into vouchers for students to attend private schools. They have also fought to prevent charter schools, including for-profit charter schools, from being more tightly regulated.
The DeVos appointment signals that Trump is serious about the $20 billion school voucher plan he rolled out on the campaign trail. The proposal would redirect huge swaths of the federal education budget away from school districts and […]
Schwartzreport Podcast
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
