Amanda Jane Hughes, Lecturer in Energy Engineering at the University of Liverpool - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: The European Space Agency is developing a non-polluting, non-carbon energy technology that sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but has now become an emerging reality.
An image of solar power coming to earth from space
It sounds like science fiction: giant solar power stations floating in space that beam down enormous amounts of energy to Earth. And for a long time, the concept – first developed by the Russian scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, in the 1920s – was mainly an inspiration for writers.
A century later, however, scientists are making huge strides in turning the concept into reality. The European Space Agency has realised the potential of these efforts and is now looking to fund such projects, predicting that the first industrial resource we will get from space is “beamed power”.
Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, so there’s a lot at stake. From rising global temperatures to shifting weather patterns, the impacts of climate change are already being felt around the globe. Overcoming this challenge will require radical changes to how we generate and consume energy.
The aim is that solar power stations in space will become a reality in the coming decades
Renewable energy technologies have developed drastically in recent years, […]
Stephan: Here is some excellent news about the absolutely awful Alaska's Bristol Bay mining project that was pushed by Trump to favor his corporate friends over the indigenous people and the planet's ecosystem.
A pair of bears perch atop Brooks Falls in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, about 100 miles from the proposed Pebble Mine site. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / Getty I
Environmental campaigners stressed the need for the incoming Biden White House to put in place permanent protections for Alaska’s Bristol Bay after the Trump administration on Wednesday denied a permit for the proposed Pebble Mine that threatened “lasting harm to this phenomenally productive ecosystem” and death to the area’s Indigenous culture.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1331662923710693376&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecowatch.com%2Fpebble-mine-denied-permit-2649060726.html%3Frebelltitem%3D2%23rebelltitem2&partner=rebelmouse&siteScreenName=EcoWatch&siteUserId=78361556&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
In its record of decision on the long-fought industrial gold and copper mining project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cited “Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act,” the Anchorage Daily Newsreported.
“USACE determined that the applicant’s plan for the discharge of fill material does not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines and concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest.”
The decision was hailed by a chorus of conservation groups. “Sometimes a project is so bad, so indefensible, that […]
Bobby McEnaney and Joshua Axelrod , - Clean Technica
Stephan: Expert analysts are beginning to write stories in their professional literature that seem to be harbingers of what will be very good news. This one is an example of what I am seeing. Biden, Harris, and their cabinet, particularly John Kerry, seem seriously committed to reversing the incompetence, corruption, and criminality of the Trump era, and moving America out of the carbon era.
Biden cabinet nominees Credit: UPI
Over the last 20 years, the U.S. oil and gas industry has expanded production astronomically, becoming the world’s largest producer of the fuels driving climate change.
The election of Joe Biden presents an opportunity to change this dangerous trajectory.
After four lost years in the wilderness, ignoring and undermining climate science, the United States will have an administration more committed to addressing climate change than any before. But for the United States to fully realize such a vision, much needs to be done to address the outsized role that this country plays regarding the extraction of fossil fuels.
Gulf of Mexico waters, byCynthia Shahan, CleanTechnica.
Action is required across our government agencies that help the U.S. economy tick and our general society function. The government-facilitated leasing of shared public lands and waters for oil and gas development must be phased out. The financial institutions that invest in and insure fossil fuel infrastructure (like pipelines, plastics manufacturing facilities, and power plants) need to recognize their profound role in enabling climate change. And those tasked […]
Natalie Grover, Science Correspondent - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: What I have feared from the beginning is that Covid, even after vaccinations are readily available, will haunt us in other ways. And this seems to be what is happening, as this early report suggests.
A healthcare worker tends to a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Credit: Mark Felix/AFP/Getty
Nearly one in five people who have had Covid-19 are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of testing positive for the virus, according to a study that suggestsaction is needed to mitigate the mental health toll of the pandemic.
The analysis – conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre – also found that people with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than those without, even accounting for known risk factors such as age, sex, race, and underlying physical conditions.
“This finding was unexpected and needs investigation. In the meantime, having a psychiatric disorder should be added to the list of risk factors for Covid-19,” said Dr Max Taquet, an NIHR academic clinical fellow and one of the authors of the analysis.https://interactive.guim.co.uk/charts/embed/nov/2020-11-09T14:42:11/embed.html
The calculations were made on the basis of roughly 70m US health records, including more than […]
Andreas Germanos, Staff Writer - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: If you read me regularly you know my strong belief that humanity must transition from the corporate industrial chemical monoculture agriculture system that currently dominates food production, changing it to an organic multiculture system that respects the earth and the planet's biosystem.
It turns out that is only part of the problem. Here is another aspect. Food production is already in crisis in this country and, as this report explains, unless we change our whole attitude about food production we are headed into real trouble.
A new report released Tuesday details the “shocking” state of global land equality, saying the problem is worse than thought, rising, and “cannot be ignored.”
“What we’re seeing is that land inequality is fundamentally a product of elite control, corporate interests, and political choices,” said Giulia Baldinelli of International Land Coalition and co-author of a new report. Credit: Wendy Stone/Corbis/Getty
Among the key findings is that the largest 1% of the world’s farms operate 70% of farmland and “form the core of production for the corporate food system.” What’s more, “given the trends in the agriculture and food systems, land consolidation will inevitably increase further.”
The warning is laid out in “Uneven Ground: land inequality at the heart of unequal societies.” Released by the International Land Coalition in collaboration with Oxfam, the publication synthesizes new research and existing data and shows how land inequality is linked with other issues including poverty, intergenerational justice and migration, environmental degradation, and the climate crisis.
“These findings radically alter our understanding of the extent and far reaching consequences land inequality has, proving that not only is […]
