Top news and views about Environment and Cleantech for 26 Mar 2017
From next week I am switching to doing this digest 3 days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There will be 6 news items in each daily post.
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How many smart cities are there in Europe?
240 European cities with populations over 100,000 have some “smart city” features–meaning they use technology to improve their energy use, transport systems or other infrastructure, according to European Parliament research. Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki and Manchester ranked highest in the list of Europe’s “smartest” cities.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2n5YdtL
Record-breaking climate change pushes world into ‘uncharted territory’
The record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year ever recorded has continued into 2017, pushing the world into “truly uncharted territory”, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
The WMO’s assessment of the climate in 2016, published on Tuesday, reports unprecedented heat across the globe, exceptionally low ice at both poles and surging sea-level rise.
Global warming is largely being driven by emissions from human activities, but a strong El Niño – a natural climate cycle – added to the heat in 2016. The El Niño is now waning, but the extremes continue to be seen, with temperature records tumbling in the US in February and polar heatwaves pushing ice cover to new lows.
“Even without a strong El Niño in 2017, we are seeing other remarkable changes across the planet that are challenging the limits of our understanding of the climate system. We are now in truly uncharted territory,” said David Carlson, director of the WMO’s world climate research programme.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2njcLZu
The Swedish recycling revolution
Wouldn’t it be great if no household waste was wasted? If each and every item of refuse was turned into something else – new products, raw materials, gas or at least heat?
Sweden is almost there. More than 99 per cent of all household waste is recycled in one way or another. This means that the country has gone through something of a recycling revolution in the last decades, considering that only 38 per cent of household waste was recycled in 1975 (see chart).
Today, recycling stations are as a rule no more than 300 metres from any residential area. Most Swedes separate all recyclable waste in their homes and deposit it in special containers in their block of flats or drop it off at a recycling station. Few other nations deposit less in rubbish dumps.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2n6i4bY
Trump Won’t Save Us From Climate Change. Maybe Surfers Will.
For surfers, countering President Donald Trump’s plan to slash federal funding for climate change research is personal.
Surfers, no strangers to environmental activism around events like World Water Day, are creating task forces to save the ocean, their multimillion-dollar industry and the scientific research that shows both face incredible threats if global temperatures continue to rise.
“Surfers are kind of like a giant tribe, a giant worldwide tribe of people,” said Terry Hardy, a longtime surfer and one of the owners of the World Surf League (WSL), the governing body for professional surfers. “We feel like we have an army we can activate that can create real change.”
The athletes Hardy represents have a lot at stake. If the sea level continues to rise, as scientists warn, there will be a serious consequence for the sport: smaller and fewer waves.
Full story at http://huff.to/2njabCI
Prepared by @SydesJokes
Original post from: http://CrowdifyClub.com/SydesJokes