Carolyn Fortuna, Author at CleanTechnica

Cooling Solutions For Cities That Lower Surface & Air Temperatures

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 22:15:17 +0000

City surface and air temperatures are in critical need of cooling. That’s because 20 of the world’s largest capitals experienced 52% days with 95 degree Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) over the past 3 decades. More than 300 million people live in these cities, where climate change has made them vulnerable, ... [continued]

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Solar Stabilizes Grid During Recent Heat Waves, But Duck Curve Days Complicate Grid Management

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 21:17:43 +0000

Global temperatures have broken long-standing records over the last month. Local utility companies have been in constant contact with their customers, offering small hints about energy conservation. Extreme heat generally translates into high electricity demand, and that can lead to rolling blackouts or outages that leave thousands without electricity. In ... [continued]

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A Tale Of Two Countries & Why One Is Holding The Agricultural Sector Responsible For Its Emissions

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:11:19 +0000

Farmers in New Zealand complained that a regulated price on methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions, starting in late 2025, would force some in their industry off their land. As a result of significant lobbying efforts, New Zealand has confirmed that the agricultural sector, which accounts for about half ... [continued]

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Electric Vehicle Popularity Is Hidden Amidst Controversies

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 22:05:43 +0000

Electric vehicle popularity is at an all-time high, but you’d never know it from reading the headlines. Vehicle electrification is expected to improve affordability for households as technology costs continue to decline, more models become available, and the used market continues to grow. Atlas Public Policy published an analysis in ... [continued]

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Did You Know That Climate Hazards Are Raising Your Household Consumer Costs?

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 00:03:00 +0000

Along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts, sea levels have risen at least 6 inches since 2010. You wouldn’t think that’s a big problem in the scheme of things, but it is forcing groundwater to rise, which leads to elevated risks of overflowing septic tanks. The impacts of climate hazards ... [continued]

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Sheep & Solar: A “Beautiful Symbiotic Relationship”

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 19:02:03 +0000

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is the fastest growing energy industry and one of the most environmentally promising methods to obtain a sustainable energy system. It’s quite appealing to think that less than 1% farmland is required for agrivoltaics to meet 20% of US electric generation. Of course, there are issues ... [continued]

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Financial Analysts Question The Merit Of Tesla’s Robotaxis

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 13:19:48 +0000

Following discussions with the Tesla investor relations team, JPMorgan analysts earlier this month said they soon expected Tesla to reveal a robotaxi prototype. The investment firm also offered the caveat that Tesla’s robotaxis and their associated revenues could be years away. That’s the kind of speculation that has been occurring ... [continued]

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Go Outside! People Who Play In Green Spaces Are Healthier

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 22:19:22 +0000

Technology is the use of scientific knowledge for practical purposes or applications, whether in industry or in our everyday lives. Clean technologies — also known sometimes as green tech — reduce the negative effects that our post-industrial society has on the planet and its ecosystems, including human life. Those negative ... [continued]

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Florida EV Drivers Will Get The Chance To Experience Wireless In-Road Charging

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 05:00:24 +0000

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to charge your electric vehicle (EV) as your drive down the highway? Well, folks in Central Florida will get the chance in a couple of years on a new highway in Lake County and Orange County. In-road charging will replenish batteries ... [continued]

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Superyachts For The Super Rich Cause A Whole Lot Of Environmental Damage

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 22:46:02 +0000

Few status symbols for the Super Rich stand out more than superyachts. Members of royal families, oligarchs, and billionaires are known to crave the elegance and indulgence, the refined taste and unparalleled luxury that these enormous floating homes offer. Superyachts are often longer than 100 feet in length and are ... [continued]

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Isn’t Engaging In Ecocide A Crime? Shouldn’t Corporations Be Held Accountable?

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:55:08 +0000

The mounting costs of housing, health care, child care, and college debt are wearing thin for US residents. Yet it turns out that average people are supporting ‘super corporations’ that pollute and that aren’t held accountable for the biodiversity loss and damage they impart. A credible argument can be made ... [continued]

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EV Charging Shortcut Gets New Stations Up & Running Faster

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:48:28 +0000

Trying to find an EV charging shortcut is the bane of many EV startups. Here at CleanTechnica we’ve followed the rise and promise, the innovations and dilemmas of the battery supply industry just over the past year. Here’s a sampling. Texas-Based Solid-State EV Battery Startup Lays Out Oil-Killing Plans The ... [continued]

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Oh, Those (Too) Big EVs

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 16:40:14 +0000

The International Energy Agency’s Global EV Outlook 2024 is full of interesting statistics and interpretations, as it is every year. Of particular interest are its conclusions on the benefits of and problems with big EVs. The report starts by giving an update on EV sales. Almost 14 million new EVs ... [continued]

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Let’s Change The Food Waste We Send To Landfills & Reduce Methane Emissions

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 15:23:08 +0000

In the US, food is the single most common material sent to landfills, comprising 24.1% of municipal solid waste. When food and other organic materials decompose in a landfill where anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions are present, bacteria break down the materials and generate methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Municipal solid ... [continued]

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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Restoration Projects Continue In Florida

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 20:33:07 +0000

Fossil fuels have damaged our world and continue to do so. None represents the impact more than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, after which federal and state agencies came together to form the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council. The Trustees studied the effects of the ... [continued]

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Notes From The 2024 Tesla Annual Stockholder Meeting

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 10:43:47 +0000

A peppy techno beat rolled and repeated in the online background leading up to the 2024 Tesla Annual Stockholder Meeting. For many small shareholders like me, sitting in on the meeting was an anomaly. After all, what voice would we little people have in the everyday workings of a corporation? ... [continued]

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Does Tesla’s Future Hinge On The 2024 Annual Stockholder Meeting?

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 18:36:34 +0000

Tesla’s real world challenges have already had an impact on its success. The question is, How much will current events, such as Thursday’s 2024 Annual Stockholder Meeting, affect Tesla’s future stability and viability? The Annual Meeting will be held at Tesla’s Austin headquarters. The company expects to accommodate only a ... [continued]

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The Increase In EV Charging Stations Comes With Obstacles & Solutions

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 23:25:12 +0000

Charging obstacles have frequently been cited as a major reason why US drivers decline to switch to EVs. Yet there is now one EV station optimized for rapid turnaround times between trips or deliveries for every 15 existing US gas stations. These EV charging stations are designed to minimize downtime ... [continued]

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The Most Recent EV Cost Of Ownership Analyses Are Very Appealing

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 18:10:13 +0000

The time has come in which electric vehicle buyers should work in the cost of ownership into their financial planning. Vincentric provides the automotive industry with cost of ownership data. Its Electric Vehicle (EV) Cost of Ownership Analysis for 2024 found that 20 of 41 (49%) EVs studied had a ... [continued]

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Should We Blame The Youth Climate Movements For Their Impatience?

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:15:11 +0000

Bill McKibben is mad at a lot of people, like Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York State, for walking back the Manhattan traffic congestion plan. The fossil fuel industry and carbon capture. (Well, nearly all of Big Oil and their pals are well-deserved objects of McKibben’s scorn.) University publications that ... [continued]

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It’s Time To Ban Fossil Fuel Advertising, Brought To You By “The Godfathers Of Climate Chaos”

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:36:51 +0000

A safe climate depends on replacing coal, oil, and gas with clean energy sources. During a speech in New York City this week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to fossil fuel advertising advertising. “The godfathers of climate chaos – the fossil-fuel industry – rake in record ... [continued]

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It’s World Ocean Day — Join In The Climate Action & Protect Three-Quarters Of The Earth’s Surface

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 05:38:19 +0000

World Ocean Day is observed on Saturday, June 8. It’s a tradition that the United Nations started celebrating in 2008, as managing ocean ecosystems for resilience is essential to a flourishing human population and global biodiversity. Towns and cities and organizations across the globe are commemorating World Ocean Day with ... [continued]

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Do Carbon Offsets Really Work?

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 22:05:45 +0000

Carbon offsets are credits that you purchase in order to balance out your emissions. You fund a project that will remove or store that same amount of carbon dioxide you emitted but in a different place. Your credit purchase means you “retire” the emissions to a carbon sink such as ... [continued]

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Electric Shuttle Buses, Wireless Charging, Autonomous Service: Next Steps In Support Transport

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 17:15:45 +0000

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week awarded nearly $900 million in rebates to help more than 500 school districts buy about 3,400 clean school buses — 92% of them electric. Electric buses and electric shuttle buses have enjoyed fast-growing adoption in recent years due to their potential benefits ... [continued]

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Should Elon Musk’s Pay Package Get Approved? Investors Weigh In

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:32:34 +0000

Elon Musk’s pay package has been the topic of much conversation and controversy in the lead-up to the 2024 Tesla Annual Shareholders Meeting on June 13. To learn more about the issue, I sat in on a webinar titled, “Investor Briefing – Time for Change at Tesla: Vote Against Directors ... [continued]

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Investment Progress For 2024: Position Yourself To Be Prepared For A Decarbonizing Economy

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:35:56 +0000

The need for greater climate finance has been the focus of numerous industry analyses, including at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). The World Economic Forum explains that we are in a place in which investment levels remain multiple times below what is needed to reach net zero ... [continued]

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What’s The Real Cost Of Fast Food? Climate Pollution

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:15:53 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten at a fast food roadside stop. As a nearly lifelong vegetarian, I’ve had to be conscious of seeking out complete proteins and nutritional balance in order to stay healthy. But my own experience with fast food is pretty rare here in the ... [continued]

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Actually, EVs Don’t Catch On Fire As Frequently As Gas-Powered Cars Do

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 22:47:49 +0000

The media is full of stories about EVs that catch on fire. Actually, research doesn’t support that claim. In fact, data demonstrates that EVs are much less likely to burst into flames than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. It’s just that, at this moment in time, it’s not very sexy ... [continued]

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Net Zero By 2050 Is Now Anticipated To Cost Nearly 20% More — Can Anything Be Done?

Fri, 31 May 2024 19:25:14 +0000

Net zero by 2050 needs a cash influx — to the tune of an extra $34 trillion. That’s 19% more than the numbers originally crunched in a respected baseline scenario. The caveat is that policymakers must ensure that transitional energy policies are firmly in place by the end of the ... [continued]

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EV Sales Are Outpacing The Growth Of EV Chargers

Thu, 30 May 2024 03:54:23 +0000

Owning an electric vehicle (EV) is fabulous: it’s clean, efficient, quiet, and speedy. Charging an EV has a couple of similarities with a gas-powered car, such as the look of the charging cable and the way it fits into the port. But fueling an EV can cause some expected effects, ... [continued]

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3M Knew Its Fluorochemicals Were Toxic Decades Ago & Likely To Cause Cancer

Mon, 27 May 2024 18:13:58 +0000

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. It recently released a 8,000 word exposé on how 3M knew that its PFAS chemicals were in people’s bodies. The information in the article is too important to overlook, so here are its highlights. In 1997, Jim Johnson gave a 3M ... [continued]

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Fleet Managers Now Have More Complex Responsibilities Due To The Addition Of EVs

Sun, 26 May 2024 21:29:09 +0000

Fleet managers have multi-layered responsibilities to ensure that vehicles and drivers are being utilized to their fullest potential in a safe and cost-effective manner. Today’s fleet managers use data to hone processes, create efficiencies, and conserve the fleet budget. Now that the electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly becoming part of ... [continued]

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Should A CEO Of A Publicly Traded Company Vacillate As Much As Musk Does?

Sun, 26 May 2024 21:26:56 +0000

In January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk insisted that US tariffs were needed against China. Yet Musk, with a tendency to vacillate on key company positions, told participants at the Viva Technology conference in Paris this week that he opposed US tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) because they were part ... [continued]

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Want Your Community To Take Action On Ambitious Climate Goals? Follow What Maine Does

Fri, 24 May 2024 20:25:58 +0000

I live in Florida, where the governor has banned speaking the words “climate change” — well, at least when it comes to governmental affairs. In reaction, a local meteorologist has vocalized his dismay. We on the ground know what’ll happen next to Steve MacLaughlin — he’ll be out on his ... [continued]

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To Buy Or Not To Buy A Used EV Market: Point/Counterpoint

Thu, 23 May 2024 13:59:16 +0000

We’ve waited for this moment in the EV Early Adopter community for a long time: the gap in price between electric and gas vehicles is getting oh-so close. Maybe it’s the right time to convince our friends, family, and neighbors to take the plunge into buying a used EV. There’s ... [continued]

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Biodiversity Is A Global Asset That Should Be Factored Into Investment Strategies

Wed, 22 May 2024 14:42:00 +0000

Readers of this publication are definitely interested in the intersection of technology and decarbonization. Yet you may not think a whole lot about biodiversity. When you mull it over, though, despite all our technological advances, we all are completely dependent on healthy and vibrant ecosystems for our water, food, medicines, ... [continued]

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Tesla Board Pushes Backdoor Hype For Musk’s Exorbitant Pay Package

Tue, 21 May 2024 00:43:24 +0000

At first glance, you might think that the little people continue to be behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in spite of his antics, poor decisions, questionable leadership style, fragile temperament, and inability to focus on Tesla. “It’s not much, but I did what I could!” one X user wrote on ... [continued]

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Behind-The-Scenes At The Tesla Supercharger Staff Firings

Mon, 20 May 2024 16:39:02 +0000

Tesla’s Supercharger network is recognized as the gold standard that all other charging companies aspire to match if they can. So far, none have. Tesla Superchargers make up 60%+ of US high-speed charging ports, and their reliability has been a significant factor in Tesla’s top electric vehicle (EV) sales numbers. ... [continued]

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How Will New China Tariffs Affect Tesla & Other EV Makers?

Sat, 18 May 2024 22:58:52 +0000

When Joe Biden was a US presidential candidate in 2019, he tweeted, “Trump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.” Fast forward five years to May 2024, and President ... [continued]

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Chefs Want To Continue To Cook With Gas — Gas Companies Help With Disinformation Campaigns

Sat, 18 May 2024 22:21:45 +0000

A coalition of gas companies and their supporters have partnered with restaurant associations to ensure the right for chefs to cook with gas. The coalition has made headway in several prominent communities and is now planning to confront rules across the western US to limit the installation of gas stoves ... [continued]

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Big Banks Take Part In A Climate Scenario Exercise — The Results Are Unsettling

Fri, 17 May 2024 19:32:31 +0000

The US Federal Reserve just released the results of a pilot climate scenario analysis (CSA) exercise they conducted in 2023 to learn about big banks and their climate risk-management practices and challenges. The goal was to highlight the measures that large banking organizations and supervisors will increasingly need to take ... [continued]

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The General Motors 2023 Sustainability Report — Mixed Results, Several Disappointments

Mon, 13 May 2024 16:05:38 +0000

General Motors has released its 2023 Sustainability Report, a sleek and glossy 84-page, feel-good publication that showcases the company’s commitment to work toward its carbon-neutral goals. The report highlights GM’s initiatives to accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption, forge strategic partnerships to enhance supply chain sustainability, and support the development of ... [continued]

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Why Harvard Sees Potential In Investing In Plant-Based Innovations

Mon, 13 May 2024 15:25:13 +0000

When we think of plant-based innovations, we tend to think of veggie burgers and soy-based chicken. A course at Harvard, titled the “Great Food Transformation,” looked at the journey towards a sustainable, resilient food system. They discovered that such a quest is both a challenge and an opportunity. Reflecting back, ... [continued]

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What Would US Transportation Look Like If Internal Combustion Engines Prevail?

Mon, 13 May 2024 15:01:21 +0000

Hollywood is usually the harbinger of worst case scenarios. Terrorist attacks on urban centers. Zombies that wreak havoc. Your enemy is your biological father. Recently, though, the most popular films seem to have forgotten the climate crisis, ignoring the hottest temperatures ever recorded, more severe storms, drought, wildfires, biodiversity loss, ... [continued]

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How Would You Vote On Pressing Tesla Issues For The 2024 Annual Meeting?

Fri, 10 May 2024 19:37:47 +0000

The Tesla, Inc. 2024 Annual Meeting is scheduled to be held on Thursday, June 13, 2024. If you are a Tesla shareholder, you’ve been invited to vote on Tesla issues and board members. I’m a small Tesla shareholder — under 500 shares — and I was invited to vote. The ... [continued]

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