Nickel has upended life on the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi, Halmahera and Obi. Over a decade the region has gone from modest ore exporter to the world’s foremost refiner…Continue readingCheap coal, cheap workers, Chinese money: Indonesia’s nickel success comes at a price
Tag: electric vehicles
Deforestation at one of Indonesia’s largest nickel processing hubs is threatening an Indigenous group that is among the country’s last uncontacted tribes, rights groups allege. Deforestation is a longstanding…Continue readingNickel hub ‘apocalyptic’ for uncontacted Indonesia tribe, say NGOs
Toyota has unveiled plans for a new generation of internal combustion engines, betting on a continued need for older technologies even as car buyers shift towards Tesla and other…Continue readingToyota bets on new line of combustion engines in challenge to Tesla
In rich countries, almost 20 million new SUVs were sold in 2023, surpassing a market share of 50% for the first time. Globally, 48% of new cars were SUVs…Continue readingGlobal sales of polluting SUVs hit record high in 2023, data shows
For decades, concerns about automobile pollution have focused on what comes out of the tailpipe. Now, researchers and regulators say, we need to pay more attention to toxic emissions…Continue readingTire toxicity faces fresh scrutiny after salmon die-offs
Climate campaigners have accused Scottish ministers of being “inept” and “short-termist” after they scrapped Scotland’s target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030. Màiri McAllan, the Scottish net…Continue reading‘Reprehensible retreat’: fury as Scottish ministers scrap carbon emissions pledge
For the first time, clean energy in the United States is at the same price as energy from burning fossil fuels thanks to policy measures. The report found that…Continue readingWhat’s slowing down America’s clean energy transition? It’s not the cost
Plastic microparticles released into the environment from common road tires should be treated as a “high concern” pollutant that may exceed chronic safety limits in some heavily contaminated environments,…Continue readingMicroparticles from road tires are ‘high concern’
A research study for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics focused on the number of daily trips taken in the United States. In 2021, 52% of all trips, including all…Continue readingMore than Half of all Daily Trips in US Were Less than Three Miles in 2021
The elephants are gone. The trees are logged out. The Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary in central Cambodia is largely destroyed, after being handed over by the government to a…Continue readingHow Mounting Demand for Rubber Is Driving Tropical Forest Loss
Norway has secured a parliamentary majority for its plans to open up for deep-sea mining despite opposition from environmentalists and the fishing industry, who warn the move risks further…Continue readingNorway’s parliament backs deep-sea mining plans
The ocean floor is shaping up to be the world’s next theater of global resource competition — and China is set to dominate it. The sea is believed to…Continue readingChina is set to dominate the deep sea and its wealth of rare metals
US carmaker Ford, Brazil’s Vale, China’s Tsingshan and Hong Kong’s Jardine Matheson are invested in Indonesian nickel projects responsible for the clearance of large swaths of some of the…Continue readingNickel miners linked to devastation of Indonesian forests
When 6PPD, which occurs in tire dust, is exposed to ground-level ozone, it’s transformed into multiple other chemicals, including 6PPD-quinone, or 6PPD-q. The compound is acutely toxic to four…Continue readingRoad Hazard: Evidence Mounts on Toxic Pollution from Tires
Urban stormwater particles from tire wear were the most prevalent microplastic a new Griffith-led study has found. Published in Environmental Science & Technology, the study showed that in stormwater…Continue readingBit by bit, microplastics from tires are polluting our waterways
Wallacea is a fascinating region of both land and sea. Spanning approximately 338,000 square kilometers within Indonesia, it is home to a rich diversity of animals and plants, with…Continue readingWallacea: A living laboratory of Earth’s evolution. Its wildlife, forests and reefs will be devastated if we don’t act
A little-known organization is meeting this week in a conference center in Jamaica. The rules the International Seabed Authority (ISA) are drafting could have immense impact. That’s because this…Continue readingMining the seabed for clean-tech minerals could destroy ecosystems. Will it get the green light?
According to analysis of seabed ecology undertaken after drilling tests in 2020 in Japan – the country’s first successful extraction of cobalt crusts from deep-sea mountains – there was…Continue readingDeep-sea mining causes huge decreases in sealife across wide region, says study
Norway’s government is readying plans to open an area of ocean nearly the size of Germany to deep-sea mining as it seeks to become the first country to extract…Continue readingNorway seeks to open vast ocean area to deep-sea mining
About 19 million leisure journeys by car are expected on Britain’s roads over the next four days, and more than 3,000 planes are scheduled to take off on Friday.Continue readingBusy roads and airports expected over late-May UK bank holiday weekend
It is the first time the previously unknown biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich area of the ocean floor that spans 1.7m sq miles between Hawaii and…Continue readingMore than 5,000 new species discovered in Pacific deep-sea mining hotspot
Residents have watched ruefully for years as solar plants crept over the horizon, bringing noise and pollution that’s eroding a way of life in their desert refuge. Kevin Emmerich…Continue readingHow solar farms took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’
The deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean have rested undisturbed for millennia. But now creatures living thousands of metres beneath the surface may be confronted by new visitors: companies…Continue reading‘Playing with fire’: the countdown to mining the deep seas for critical minerals
The race for high-tech metals has sparked a cobalt boom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has come at a steep human cost. In an e360 interview,…Continue readingFor Your Phone and EV, a Cobalt Supply Chain to a Hell on Earth
The proposed US goal to double electricity transmission lines and build a separate electric vehicle charging network while also expanding solar and wind production to move to 100% renewable…Continue readingThe squeeze on powering the open road
Businesses want to trawl for nickel, manganese and cobalt to build electric cars and windfarms.Continue readingDeep-sea mining for rare metals will destroy ecosystems, say scientists
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said: “Since the source of energy is green, the products that will be produced later in the Industrial Park Area are also green products,…Continue readingIndonesia breaks ground on $2.6bn Mentarang Induk hydropower project
Far more tiny particles now come from tyres than are emitted from exhausts.Continue readingHealth impact of tyre particles causing ‘increasing concern’, say scientists
Apocalypse investors are pushing fake climate solutions on us that are making climate change worse.Continue readingWe are ‘greening’ ourselves to extinction
In 1900, approximately 80% of the elements humans used came from biomass (wood, plants, food, etc.). That figure had fallen to 32% by 2005, and is expected to stand…Continue readingHumans plunder the periodic table while turning blind eye to the risks of doing so, say researchers
DfT refuses to publish emission figures, which campaigners say could make new road projects unviable.Continue readingUK government blocks release of CO₂ figures behind transport plan
At the bottom of a crater in southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, 20,000 people work at a cobalt mine, in shifts of 5,000 at a time.Continue readingDR Congo’s faltering fight against illegal cobalt mines
One argument against deep seabed mining is the existence of previously unknown species in the deep sea, including the recently discovered pom-pom-like Biremis spaghetti worm and the delightfully weird…Continue readingTwo-year countdown for deep seabed mining
Stuart Crow, chair of Lake Resources, said western companies and governments had failed to build adequate supply chains for lithium, making the sudden boom in electric vehicle manufacturing unsustainable.…Continue readingElectric vehicle targets ‘impossible’ without changes to lithium pipeline
Transocean Ltd. announced today that it has purchased a minority interest in Ocean Minerals Ltd., a company engaged in the exploration of seabed resources containing metals critical to the growing renewable…Continue readingTransocean Ltd. Invests in Exploration of Seabed Minerals to Support the Renewable Energy Supply Chain
The world faces a growing demand for critical minerals to meet expanding demand for clean energy and low-carbon technologies and to fuel the transition to cleaner energy futures (Bazilian…Continue readingStudy – Critical minerals for electric vehicles: a telecoupling review
While driving an electric car has fewer environmental impacts than gasoline-powered cars, the production of the parts necessary for these green technologies can have dire effects on human well-being.…Continue readingCobalt’s human cost: Social consequences of green energy must be assessed in addition to environmental impacts
Almost two-thirds of the hundreds of mollusc species that live in the deep sea are at risk of extinction, according to a new study that rings another alarm bell…Continue readingDeep-sea mining may push hundreds of species to extinction
Trillions of polymetallic nodules litter Earth’s ocean floors. Each is rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper; some of the most important metals for manufacturing low carbon technology. Mining…Continue readingIs deep-sea mining a cure for the climate crisis or a curse?