Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • How steel might finally kick its coal habit

    Boston Metal is transforming how steel is made by replacing coal with electrons. Instead of using the fossil fuel in furnaces to melt iron ores, the Massachusetts-based company uses electric currents to heat the ore, which doesn’t create any greenhouse gas emissions. So far, the company has made only several tons of steel, but it recently received investor funding to expand its work.

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  • A Florida Study Showed How to Save Energy at Home. Why Aren't More Cities and States Following Suit?

    A pilot energy retrofit project in Florida has shown that these upgrades for homeowners ultimately saves them money and energy, and can be made accessible to people from all types of socioeconomic backgrounds. This private-public partnership retrofitted 56 single-family homes, some with “shallow” retrofits like LED lightbulbs and smart plugs and some with “phased deep” retrofits like energy-efficient windows and air conditioners. The program showed that all participants saved energy and could be scaled to other states.

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  • Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced

    Batteries that can be fully charged in five minutes have been created for the first time, allowing electric cars to recharge faster. The Israeli company StoreDot produced 1,000 of these new lithium-ion batteries, which can be recharged for 1,000 cycles while retaining 80 percent of the original capacity. It could be a few years before they are mass produced, but the CEO of the company says that this feat “demonstrates it is feasible and it’s commercially ready.”

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  • Human composting now legal, begins in Washington

    Instead of burying or cremating a body after the person has died, some are turning their loved ones into compost. Washington recently became the first state to approve human remains composting, which environmentalists heralded as a greener alternative because it uses less energy. Herland Forest, a natural burial cemetery, is doing one of the first licensed “natural organic reductions” using a “cradle” with wood chips, bacteria, fungi, and oxygen to help speed up the decomposition process. This can take several weeks, but it could become a popular option.

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  • What A Solar-Powered, Portable Library Looks Like

    Arizona State University’s SolarSPELL project developed a waterproof device with a solar panel and other equipment that allows users to connect to “offline WiFi” networks and browse preloaded webpages. SD cards store open access educational content and national education ministries have the ability to add national textbooks and other culturally relevant content. About 25 users can connect without slowing browsing speeds and the ASU team provides training on how to use the device. While the device is primarily charged using the solar panel, it can also be charged using electricity during cloudy weather.

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  • New York's Real Climate Challenge: Fixing Its Aging Buildings

    A housing project in Brooklyn is taking nine apartment buildings and retrofitting them to be more sustainable and cut carbon emissions. Casa Pasiva is a $20 million project that aims to reduce heating and cooling costs because of updated machinery and thick exteriors that will improve air quality. Funding for these types of initiatives is not always certain, but a collaboration between a developer and a nonprofit, with some city financing, made this first-of-a-kind green building renovation in New York possible.

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  • The Island Where Everyone Owns the Wind

    Denmark’s Samso Island has not only succeeded in generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy - which is the nation’s goal by 2030 - it is now carbon negative. Locals initially pushed back on the idea of loud and unsightly windmills but had a change of heart when part ownership of the turbines was offered. Samso Island’s success in addressing climate change so effectively was a result of civic participation and the opportunity for economic development.

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  • Could Carbon Dioxide Be Turned Into Jet Fuel?

    Scientists at Oxford University have come up with a process that could turn carbon dioxide into jet fuel. The greenhouse gas, which is a major contributor to climate change, is constantly emitted by the aviation industry and this method would allow for that gas to be recycled into a liquid fuel for flights. Scaling the experiment has its challenges, but the process could result in net-zero emissions from airplanes.

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  • Breaking Buildings' Addiction to Fossil Fuels

    BlocPower retrofits buildings with energy-efficient equipment in financially underserved communities by offering loans to building owners for no money down. The company has completed about 1,000 projects by bundling the financing for many projects and finding investors willing to provide capital for the larger sum, which reduces investor risk. The group also created technology to reduce the costs of building inspections and energy usage monitoring. The new equipment increases building values and reduces energy costs so that owners pay less in monthly loan repayments than they would with the old equipment.

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  • Budget-strapped Wyo towns bypass state with climate efforts

    Several counties in Wyoming are "breaking with state policy" in order to introduce initiatives and efforts aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the impacts of climate change. Although the state controls financial allocations, city and county governments as well as community-driven efforts have still resulted in a reduction of electrical consumption and fossil fuel consumption.

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