Is Buying Renewables Anti-American?

COUNTRIES AROUND THE world are embracing renewable energy like solar and wind power and switching from coal to natural gas. But as they plan to invest billions of dollars in such infrastructure projects, they might also have to pick a side.

With the U.S. betting heavily on natural gas and China tightening its grip on the manufacturing of solar panels, choosing one technology over the other might risk alienating – or could end up currying favor with – one superpower or the other.

In short, new solar facilities – while friendly to the global environment – could one day become seen as the anti-American choice.

Read the U.S. News and World Report story - “Is Buying Renewables Anti-American?”

The Queen and Sir David Attenborough join forces for new nature documentary

In scenes from the upcoming show,  The Queen’s Green Planet, the pair can be seen walking around a park and discussing their shared passion for nature.

Nature fan: The Queen reveals her love of trees. 

Attenborough explains: “Trees have been a part of the Queen’s life all her life.

“Join me as I take a walk around her garden and learn of the Queen’s dream of making a global network of trees.”

Read the Aimee Grant Cumberbatch story from the Evening Standard - “The Queen and Sir David Attenborough join forces for new nature documentary.”

Nestlé Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For

In rural Mecosta County, Mich., sits a near-windowless facility with a footprint about the size of Buckingham Palace. It’s just one of Nestlé’s roughly 100 bottled water factories in 34 countries around the world.

ILLUSTRATION: SILJA GÖTZ FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Inside, workers wear hairnets, hard hats, goggles, gloves, and earplugs. Ten production lines snake through the space, funneling local spring water into 8-ounce to 2.5-gallon containers; most of the lines run 24/7, each pumping out 500 to 1,200 bottles per minute. About 60 percent of the supply comes from Mecosta’s springs and arrives at the factory via a 12-mile pipeline. The rest is trucked in from neighboring Osceola County, about 40 miles north. “Daily, we’re looking at 3.5 million bottles potentially,” says Dave Sommer, the plant’s 41-year-old manager, shouting above the din.

Silos holding 125 tons of plastic resin pellets provide the raw material for the bottles. They’re molded into shape at temperatures reaching 400F before being filled, capped, inspected, labeled, and laser-printed with the location, day, and minute they were produced—a process that takes less than 25 seconds. Next, the bottles are bundled, shrink-wrapped onto pallets, and picked up by a fleet of 25 forklifts that ferry them to the plant’s warehouse or loading docks. As many as 175 trucks arrive every day to transport the water to retail locations in the Midwest. “We want more people to drink water, keep hydrated,” Sommer says. “It would be nice if it were my water, but we just want them to drink water.”

Read the Bloomberg Businessweek story By Caroline Winter - “Nestlé Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For.”

Who’s to blame when driverless cars have an accident?

The news that an Uber self-driving vehicle has killed a pedestrian in the US has made headlines around the world.

Autonomous vehicles are information-rich platforms
thanks to the range of sensors on board that track,
monitor and measure everything.

It’s a reminder that the era of self-driving cars is fast approaching. Decades of research into advanced sensors, mapping, navigation and control methods have now come to fruition and autonomous cars are starting to hit the roads in pilot trials.

But partial or full autonomy raises the question of who is to blame in the case of an accident involving a self-driving car? In conventional (human-driven) cars, the answer is simple: the driver is responsible because they are in control. When it comes to autonomous vehicles, it isn’t so clear cut.

Read the CSIRO blog - “Who’s to blame when driverless cars have an accident?”

(We managed to resolve the legal intricacies surrounding the activities, and accidents, involving millions privately owned, individually driven cars and so a self-driving vehicle should not be too complex, just different - Robert McLean)

The land of ice embracing climate change

Greenland's massive ice cap is melting at alarming speed, raising fears of sea levels rising around the world.

A sheep farm in Greenland.

But for many of Greenland's 56,000 residents, melting ice means money.

"I'm quite optimistic," Andrias Olsen, a fleet manager with the State fishing company Royal Greenland, said.

"We're seeing some higher stocks due to climate change — at least due to warmer sea temperatures — but also due to the ice cap melting.

"A lot of nutritious water comes down the big fjord systems, which creates optimal conditions for fishery.”

Almost 80 per cent of Greenland is covered by an ice cap, meaning everyone has to make a living on the coast.

Read the ABC News story by foreign correspondent Eric Campbell - “The land of ice embracing climate change.”

Renewables will give more people access to electricity than coal, says IEA

Around the world, more than a billion people still lack access to electricity.

This number is shrinking, down by one third since 2000, despite rising population levels, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA) special report on energy access, published today.

The report says that while coal has supplied nearly half of the progress from 2000 to date, its role is set to decline “dramatically”. This is because renewables are becoming cheaper and because the hardest-to-reach people are in remote, rural areas where off-grid solutions offer the lowest cost.

The report shows the number of people without access to electricity will shrink by another third by 2030, with 60% of these gains supplied by renewables. Furthermore, if the world commits to providing universal access by 2030, then renewables would bridge 90% of the remaining gap, the IEA says.

Read the CarbonBrief story - “Renewables will give more people access to electricity than coal, says IEA.”