Via Western Water Notes, a report on a new study looking at the impacts of sea level rise on coastal groundwater aquifers: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech If you read this newsletter regularly, you know my interest in groundwater stems, in part, from the fact that groundwater is invisible to us much of the time. Over the past […]
Via The Diplomat, an article on allowing the Caspian Sea to succumb to industrial exploitation and climate-induced desiccation would be an irreversible tragedy: Last month, an 18th-century 28-meter wooden shipwreck was discovered off the Mazandaran coast of the Caspian Sea in southern Iran. Operating under Russian influence, the ship likely comprised part of a merchant fleet carrying botanical […]
Via Western Water Notes, a report on a new USGS assessment highlighting water availability: The U.S. Geological Survey released a water assessment on Thursday that found about 27 million people in the United States live in areas with high to severe levels of water scarcity. Although the agency has studied water quantity and quality in […]
Via Bloomberg, a report on Saudi Arabia’s plans to build an AI powerhouse: Entity would build on kingdom’s efforts to emerge as AI hub PIF, Google AI partnership may serve as model for project Saudi Arabia is planning a new artificial intelligence project with backing of as much as $100 billion as it seeks to […]
Via the Wall Street Journal a look at Russia’s plans to merge its oil giants into a mega producer which would be the world’s second-biggest crude producer, after Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, pumping almost three times the output of Exxon Mobil: Moscow is working on a plan to merge its biggest oil companies into a single […]
Kazakhstan once harbored grand plans for a high-speed rail network. The Diplomat examines why – while its neighbors have pushed ahead with such projects – HSR fallen out of favor in Astana: High-speed train travel can be a challenging prospect for any nation. To achieve speeds of 250 kilometers per hour, high-speed rail (HSR) requires […]
Via SciTech Daily, a report on a recent Department of Energy study on the potential for federal reservoirs to generate enough solar energy to power 100 million homes annually: A new study reveals that federally managed reservoirs have the potential to generate enough energy to supply power to around 100 million U.S. homes annually. Federal […]
Via The Diplomat, a look at how Ecuador’s energy crisis has focused attention on its under-performing hydroelectric dams built by China’s state-owned enterprises. For the past three month, the Ecuadorian government has been struggling to combat droughts within the Mazar and Coca rivers. These droughts are occurring due to El Nino, forcing Ecuador’s mainly hydroelectric system to […]
Via Carbon Copy, a look at how pricing energy for groundwater extraction could promote more efficient use of both water and energy, arrest groundwater depletion, and make irrigation more sustainable: As Azerbaijan hosts the Conference of the Parties (COP29), it is worth noting that this water-scarce nation heavily depends on water inflow from upstream countries […]
Via Volts, an interesting interview examining how residential solar is becoming residential solar + storage + VPP: Hello everyone, this is Volts for November 13, 2024. “Residential solar is becoming residential solar + storage + VPP.” I’m your host, David Roberts. Last month, I was in Brooklyn for the third annual DERvos conference celebrating distributed […]
Via MIT Technology Review, an article on efforts to connect the U.S.’s grids: Michael Skelly hasn’t learned to take no for an answer. For much of the last 15 years, the Houston-based energy entrepreneur has worked to develop long-haul transmission lines to carry wind power across the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southwest, delivering clean electricity […]
Via High Country News, a look at how engineering for flood resilience can address storms heightened by climate change. The living roof of the H2 Hotel in Healdsburg, California, both cools the building and mitigates rainwater runoff.John D. Ivanko/Alamy Stock Photo In early February, meteorologists warned Southern Californians that a supercharged storm was headed their way, […]
Via Bloomberg, a look at China’s substantial efforts to future-proof itself for trade wars and the return of Donald Trump: China’s quest to feed itself has taken it as far as Kenya’s macadamia nut groves and Bolivia’s cattle ranches, as part of a push in recent years to diversify food sources away from traditional Western […]
Via the Regina Leader-Post, a report on how foreign ownership of Saskatchewan farmland remains a concern for producers: Jeremy Welter is worried about the regulations that govern foreign purchasing and ownership of land. “The biggest concern is, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough teeth in the current legislation,” said Welter, vice-president of the Agricultural Producers […]
Via The Diplomat, a look at how Uzbek farmers are paying a heavy price in the name of privatization: A new report on land grabbing and urban forced evictions, published by a network of independent Uzbek civil rights activists in collaboration with the University of Ulster and Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, exposes the vulnerability of farmers […]
Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on Electronic Arts’ use of new tech to scan photos for its videogame after securing players’ likeness rights for the first time A character artist works on the new ‘EA Sports College Football 25.’ PHOTO: EA SPORTS It has been over a decade since Electronic Arts released a college football videogame. To […]
Via MIT’s Technology Review, a report on how how AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersiv First, a confession. I only got into playing video games a little over a year ago (I know, I know). A Christmas gift of an Xbox Series S “for the kids” dragged me—pretty easily, […]
Via Sports Business Journal, a look at how Gym Class VR is building on its popularity with the addition of NBA logos and venues: The mid-range jumper may be a lost art in the NBA game, but I sank one from just inside the free-throw line at the TD Garden, as the PA announcer called out the basket. […]
Via South China Morning Post, a look at China’s massive ‘distributed’ solar power generation program on roofs of houses, factories and airports is spreading across country, but curtailment rate is also rising: Former construction contractor Gao Shouguang switched careers last year, abandoning the troubled property sector to become a solar panel distributor – and another example […]
Via Fast Company, a report on where homeowners are adopting solar panels: While more homeowners are adding solar panels to their homes in hopes of reducing their energy bills, adoption varies significantly across the country To understand which housing markets are doing the most solar panel installation, ResiClub collaborated with the data experts at BatchService, […]
Via Grist, a report on the math behind putting solar on your roof, which indicates that waiting until you need to re-roof is usually the best course of action: Not too long ago, Bryan and Summer Stubblefield wanted to outfit their California home with solar panels. They were considering an electric vehicle, and powering it with the sun […]
Via Forbes, a look at how Markel’s Chief executive Thomas Gayner has quietly turned insurer Markel into a mini-conglomerate. Meet Richmond’s answer to the Oracle of Omaha: Thomas Gayner gets a kick out of telling the story. It was 1983. He had just graduated from the University of Virginia with a plan to return home to Salem, […]
Via The Economist, a look at a firm which many consider as technology’s Berkshire Hathaway: For older startups these are tough times. The weak recent stockmarket debuts of Arm, a British chipmaker, Instacart, a grocery-delivery group, and Klaviyo, a software firm, have dampened enthusiasm for initial public offerings. Venture capital (vc) has dried up. Data […]
Via Bloomberg, interesting commentary on how many – such as crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried couldn’t survive the comparison – but others who actually invest somewhat like the Berkshire Hathaway chairman fare better: A couple of months ago, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was peering out from the cover of Fortune magazine above the words “The Next Warren Buffett?” Now he’s at […]
Via Nautilus, a report on how to tell a leopard from its roar and the potential to make a Shazam for conservationists: The leopard’s roar is a distinct sound. A repetitive pattern of hoarse and guttural calls, it is often compared to the rough music of a saw being pushed and pulled through a giant […]
Via The Economist, a look at initial steps to digitize our forests by using new technology to sniff out fires long before they spread out of control: The fires went on for three relentless days in the summer of 2021, scorching over 13,000 hectares of western Sardinia. Residents “saw their whole world go up in flames […]
Via Wired, a look at how – with big cash prizes at stake and AI supercharging research—interspecies translation is closer than ever. But what, if anything, would animals want to tell us? In 2025 we will see AI and machine learning leveraged to make real progress in understanding animal communication, answering a question that has […]