Environment

Energy majors go slow on green transition despite pressure

Most oil majors are stepping up investment in green energy amid rising activist pressure but without abandoning fossil fuels, putting at risk reaching carbon neutrality in 2050.. Yet oil and gas firms are not cutting investment in fossil fuel exploration and production.

Fungi and plants clean up California pollution

In an industrial wasteland in Los Angeles, Kreigh Hampel is uprooting California buckwheat with a pitchfork to find out how much lead it has absorbed.. Several California native plants, including the telegraph weed and the California bush sunflower, are particularly good at absorbing heavy metals.

Vietnam battles plastic blight in idyllic Ha Long Bay

Squinting in the bright light of a hot summer morning, Vu Thi Thinh perches on the edge of her small wooden boat and plucks a polystyrene block from the calm waters of Vietnam's Ha Long Bay.. Thinh, the trash collector, grew up in Ha Long and remembers a very different bay.

Musk's Neuralink says cleared for human test of brain implants

Elon Musk's start-up Neuralink on Thursday said it has approval from US regulators to test its brain implants in people.. The aim of Neuralink implants is to enable human brains to communicate directly with computers, Musk said during a presentation by the start-up in December.

Musk's Neuralink says cleared for human test of brain implants

Elon Musk's start-up Neuralink on Thursday said it has gotten approval from US regulators to test its brain implants in people.. The aim of Neuralink implants is to enable human brains to communicate directly with computers, Musk said during a presentation by the start-up in December.

Musk gives Ford access to Tesla's US chargers

Tesla will open its network of superchargers in the United States and Canada to Ford electric vehicles from 2024, the companies said Thursday, doubling the stations available to Ford customers.. Ford came in second in fully electric vehicle sales in the United States last year, according to CNBC. Faced with more competition from other automakers, Tesla has undertaken a series of price cuts in 2023 and seen its margins squeezed.

Bird flu fells nearly 9,000 marine creatures in Chile

Nearly 9,000 sea lions, penguins, otters and small cetaceans have died in an avian flu outbreak battering Chile's north coast, the South American country's fisheries service said Thursday. . Since the beginning of 2023, more than 7,600 sea lions, 1,186 Humboldt penguins -- an endangered species that breeds only in Chile and Peru -- and several otters, porpoises and dolphins have been found dead along the coast, the Sernapesca service said in a statement.   

US Supreme Court deals setback to clean water law

The US Supreme Court dealt a blow on Thursday to the federal government's authority to regulate wetlands under a landmark anti-pollution law.. The nation's highest court ruled in favor of a couple who were stopped by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from building a home near Priest Lake in Idaho because the property abuts federally protected wetlands.

Virgin Galactic resumes spaceflights after two year pause

Virgin Galactic successfully carried out its first spaceflight in nearly two years Thursday, the company said, after an "enhancement period" to make safety upgrades to its fleet.. Virgin Galactic's space program has suffered years of delays and a 2014 accident in which a pilot died.

Warming Arctic could put chill on squirrel 'date night'

As Alaska's bleak winter sets in, arctic ground squirrels burrow deep into the ground to begin an eight-month-hibernation before popping up again in spring, famished and eager to breed.. They hibernate around eight months of the year, digging about three feet (a meter) deep in the sandy banks of rivers, just above the tundra's permafrost.