How an electric car can make you money

The solar-power charged electric cars making money
Electric cars are being used to help power a small Portuguese island in the Atlantic. Porto Santo Island has begun testing a scheme in which the batteries in electric vehicles are charged by solar power during the day but at night return spare energy to the grid to power people's homes. Some experts say this form of energy storage could become a global trend.

How an electric car can make you money

What it’s like to raise children in the world’s most polluted capital

Air pollution is a world-wide problem and is on the rise specifically in large cities of the developing world - driven by urbanization and fueled by climate change. Ulaanbaatar is the worst and a harbinger of things to come...

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Jargalmaa Sukhbaatar is five years old, and she hasn’t been to school in weeks. Her parents are keeping her at home to protect her from the toxic air outside.
The oldest of three children, Jargalmaa is a resident of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the world’s coldest capital city and one of its most polluted. During the winter months, when average temperatures can dip below -40 degrees (in both Fahrenheit and Celsius), the air in Ulaanbaatar fills with toxic particles that emanate from the unrefined coal burning inside people’s homes, causing a smog so thick that it becomes almost impossible to see.
Forty-five percent of Mongolians now live in the city, and experts say it is overpopulated. As Ulaanbaatar continues to grow and industrialize, the problem has only worsened. The pollution is especially bad in northern districts of the city, where families settle in traditional nomadic yurts, known as gers, and burn whatever they can find to stay warm in below freezing temperatures.

EUTERS / B. RENTSENDORJ
What it’s like to raise children in the world’s most polluted capital

83 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under Trump - The New York Times

Trump and his supporters are criminals!

By NADJA POPOVICH, LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA and KENDRA PIERRE-LOUIS UPDATED June 7, 2019
President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses.

83 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under Trump - The New York Times

Fresh mountain smog? 96% of national parks have hazardous air quality – study

Millions of tourists will head out into America’s national parks this summer in search of fresh mountain air. But according to a new report they should instead expect dangerous levels of pollution; roughly 96% of the nation’s parks are struggling with significant air quality issues.

A rainbow is seen across the Yosemite Valley in front of El Capitan granite rock formation in Yosemite national park. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Fresh mountain smog? 96% of national parks have hazardous air quality – study

Rising demand for air conditioning could make climate change even worse

By Sarah Wesseler
Between 1992 and 2016, more than 22,000 people in India died as a result of heat exposure. In 2015 alone, the death toll reached 2,300.
Authoritative projections indicate that under a high-emissions scenario, 75 percent of the country’s population will face dangerous levels of heat and humidity by 2100. Cities that now house millions would become uninhabitable.

Continue reading at: Rising demand for air conditioning could make climate change even worse

Earth's carbon dioxide has jumped to the highest level in human history

By Andrew Freedman
The monthly peak amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere in 2019 jumped by a near-record amount to reach 414.8 parts per million (ppm) in May, which is the highest level in human history and likely the highest level in the past 3 million years.
Why it matters: Carbon dioxide is the most important long-lived greenhouse gas, with a single molecule lasting in the air for hundreds to around 1,000 years. The continued buildup of carbon dioxide due to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels for energy, is driving global temperatures up and instigating harmful impacts worldwide.

A thermal power plant located between Tianjin and Beijing. Photo: Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images
Continue reading at: Earth's carbon dioxide has jumped to the highest level in human history

Toward zero hunger: More food or a smarter food system?

Contact: ericksn@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR—When thinking about ways to end global hunger, many scholars focus too narrowly on increasing crop yields while overlooking other critical aspects of the food system.
That’s one conclusion from a University of Michigan-led research team that reviewed recent scholarly papers discussing the United Nations goal of ending hunger and malnutrition worldwide by 2030. The authors are members of U-M’s Sustainable Food Systems Initiative.

Toward zero hunger: More food or a smarter food system?
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