Will its bark be worse than its bite? * See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading...

As multinationals and researchers harvest rare organisms around the world, anger is rising in the global south over the unpaid use of lucrative genetic codes found on their land Even in the warm summer sun, the stagnant puddles and harsh rock faces of Ribblehead quarry in North Yorkshire feel like an unlikely frontier of the AI industrial revolution. Standing next to a waterfall that bursts out from the fractured rock, Bupe Mwambingu reaches into the green sludge behind the cascade and emerges with fistful of algae. Balancing precariously on the rocks, the researcher passes the dripping mass to her colleague Emma Bolton, who notes their GPS coordinates and the acidity, temperature and light exposure on a phone app. Continue reading...

A secondhand EV is a possibility for many families as the cost of desirable models, including Kias and Teslas, falls to £15,000 If your current car is on the way out and you think an electric replacement is too expensive, think again. Three-year-old Tesla Model 3s and Kia e-Niros that will do 250-300 miles on a single charge can now be bought for as little as £14,000. In the last year, forecourt prices for used electric cars have tumbled to the extent that previously unaffordable models are now within the reach of many families for the first time. Continue reading...

Serbian green campaigner who co-drafted declaration against lithium exploitation now fears for his safety When Aleksandar Matković received the first message threatening his life, he thought it was a prank. The text, sent to his Telegram account just after midnight on 14 August read: “We will follow you until you disappear, scum.” Matković is one of the campaigners who have been at the forefront of widespread protests against plans to develop a massive lithium mine in Serbia. He said: “At first I thought someone was joking but during the morning I got another message, saying ‘how is the struggle against Rio Tinto going?’ from another profile I didn’t know, and the app displayed the sender’s distance as just 500 [metres] away.” Continue reading...

Satellite image analysis shows 329 hectares of forest cleared during development of factory in Germany The development of a Tesla gigafactory near Berlin has resulted in about 500,000 trees being felled, according to satellite analysis. The building of the German factory has been highly controversial and attracted significant protests, as well as prompting a debate about the trade-offs involved in developing a green economy. Continue reading...

There are signs the billionaire is becoming unpopular with the very demographic group most likely to buy EVs Elon Musk has long flirted with rightwing politics, and delights in pushing an image of himself as a contrarian showman. Yet in recent months the billionaire’s political allegiances have started to raise a question for Tesla, the company that he built into the world’s largest electric carmaker: just how far can he go before customers start to abandon his products? The German pharmacy chain Rossmann was one of the first to put its head above the parapet this week. The family-owned company announced that it would not add to the 34 Teslas in its company fleet because of Musk’s endorsement of Donald Trump for US president. Continue reading...

The 35-nation Iter project has a groundbreaking aim to create clean and limitless energy but it is turning into the ‘most delayed and cost-inflated science project in history’ It was a project that promised the sun. Researchers would use the world’s most advanced technology to design a machine that could generate atomic fusion, the process that drives the stars – and so create a source of cheap, non-polluting power. That was initially the aim of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) which 35 countries – including European states, China, Russia and the US – agreed to build at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance in southern France at a starting cost of $6bn. Work began in 2010, with a commitment that there would be energy-producing reactions by 2020. Continue reading...

As demand for the tin ore cassiterite soars, special forces units of Brazil’s Ibama environment agency must play a cat and mouse game with the thousands of illegal miners pouring into Yanomami reserves In the back yard of the federal police headquarters in Roraima, the northernmost state of Brazil, giant sacks lie strewn and overflowing with a jet-black, gravel-like mineral: cassiterite. Although less high-profile than other items seized during a crackdown on illegal mining in this Amazon state – including a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter painted in the colours of the Brazilian flag – cassiterite has become so sought-after that it is nicknamed “black gold”. Cassiterite is the chief ore of tin, a less heralded but critical mineral for the energy transition. It is used in coatings for solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and solder for electronics, including wind turbines, mobile phones, computers and industrial alloys. Continue reading...

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I’m no expert, but knowing my neighborhood’s trees and flowers by name makes me feel grounded Eighteen months ago, I adopted a dog. Now I’m out on the streets of Brooklyn with my hound mix for at least an hour a day, strolling and wrestling discarded chicken bones from her jaws. You notice a lot when you visit the same few blocks over and over: which avenues are the quietest, or when the rusty scaffolding around a nearby building vanishes overnight. Most of all, I love to admire neighborhood greenery. I’m an adoring fan of the tulips, peonies and dogwood flowers that burst forth in the spring. Yet I quickly realized how limited my plant vocabulary was. Yes, I knew that was a silver birch, because of its papery bark. But what was that taller tree, glossy and looming, or that pale shrub with tiny, ornate leaves? I grew up in Australia, where the vegetation is pretty different from that of the US north-east, and I really hadn’t made an effort to learn about the locals. It felt disrespectful, to say the least. Continue reading...