After decades of bags lining the streets, the mayor has proudly wheeled out a McKinsey-approved trash can
The revolution will not be televised. Unless it’s Mayor Eric Adams’s Trash Revolution, of course. In which case a press conference will be held, music blasted, and every camera crew in the five boroughs invited.
On Monday the mayor of New York, with Jessica Tisch, the sanitation commissioner, by his side, unveiled New York City’s first official trash bin. The mayor wheeled the new NYC Bin down Gracie Mansion’s driveway and, with his characteristic swagger, demonstrated how the innovative new technology works: you open the lid and you put the rubbish in. It’s highly intuitive technology.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/10/2024 - 08:00
07/10/2024 - 07:06
Exclusive: Fears customers will end up paying twice for work needed in order to comply with legal pollution limits
Thames Water has failed to complete more than 100 upgrades to ageing sewage treatment works to meet legal pollution limits, the Guardian can reveal.
The schemes costing £1.1bn were supposed to cut pollution into rivers by increasing the capacity at sewage works, adding phosphorus removal to the treatment process, and installing new storm tanks. The upgrades, which were promised in 2018, are being paid for by customers as part of a five-year spending round to 2025 but will not be delivered within that timeframe.
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07/10/2024 - 05:00
Nearly 34 million people in those cities, or 15% of the US population, experiencing temperatures higher than in surrounding areas
Almost 34 million people in 65 major US cities, or 15% of the country’s population, are experiencing temperatures that are 8F higher than their surrounding areas, according to a new analysis from Climate Central, a non-profit research group.
That is largely due to built environments like parking lots and asphalt sidewalks, and a lack of trees, that contribute to what’s known as the urban heat island effect.
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07/10/2024 - 01:00
A rising number of lawsuits in courts around the world are holding governments and corporations to account for their treatment of the seas and those who rely on them
A few years ago, Anna von Rebay gave up her lucrative job in a corporate law firm specialising in art law to concentrate on her passion for the ocean. “All threats to the sea come from humans, who behave as though nature is nothing more than a resource,” says Von Rebay, who works in Germany and Indonesia. “But the ocean can’t stand up for itself.”
Inspired by a rising wave of lawsuits seeking to hold governments and companies to account for climate action, she set up Ocean Vision Legal, a law firm with a unique remit: to litigate on the ocean’s behalf.
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07/09/2024 - 18:01
Advert trumpeting storm overflow plans should have disclosed past environmental harms, says ASA
A Wessex Water TV advert about its plans to tackle storm overflows has been banned as misleading because it omitted key information about its record on sewage pollution.
The Advertising Standards Authority investigated after receiving a complaint about the ad for the supplier, which provides water to 1.4 million customers and sewerage services to 2.9 million people in the south-west of England.
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07/09/2024 - 18:01
Switchee aims to protect health and cut bills by installing its technology in 1m homes
A British startup which uses technology to prevent renters from living in cold, damp homes has raised fresh funds to expand as landlords belatedly try to tackle outbreaks of mould in crumbling social housing.
Switchee has secured £5m, split equally between an existing investor, Axa IM Alts, and Octopus Ventures, part of the group which includes household gas and electricity supplier Octopus Energy.
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07/09/2024 - 13:11
‘Mission control centre’ to work with energy companies and regulators towards goal of clean and cheaper power by 2030
Labour has appointed one of the country’s foremost climate experts to lead a “mission control centre” on clean energy.
Chris Stark, the former head of the UK’s climate watchdog, will head a Covid vaccine-style taskforce aimed at delivering clean and cheaper power by 2030.
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07/09/2024 - 12:55
Teen’s injuries weren’t considered life-threatening in shark attack, which are rare incidents, though Florida is US and world leader
A shark bit a Florida teen on the leg during a lifeguard training camp on Monday morning, officials said.
The attack on the 14-year-old boy in question occurred near the Ponce Inlet lifeguard tower shortly before noon, Volusia county beach safety officials said. The lifeguard trainee had been practicing water entries when he landed on a shark.
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07/09/2024 - 11:18
The United States has lost its only stand of the massive Key Largo tree cactus in what researchers believe is the first local extinction of a species caused by sea level rise in the country.
07/09/2024 - 11:06
At least six energy companies prospecting for first windfarms in almost a decade after Labour lifts limits
Renewable energy companies have begun work on new onshore windfarms in England for the first time in almost a decade after the new government reversed restrictions the Conservatives had put in place on turbines.
At least half a dozen renewables developers have begun identifying potential sites for full-scale windfarms in England after the Labour party swept to power last week with the promise to make Britain a clean energy superpower.
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