GoKawiil
Tech News
A new analysis using satellite observations has identified the 15 highest-emitting methane sources across three major U.S. oil and gas producing basins. The report pinpoints specific facilities and infrastructure responsible for the largest volumes of methane leakage detected from orbit.
Al Gore, speaking with TechCrunch alongside Generation Investment Management's Lila Preston, argued that AI data centers' emissions are far smaller than critics claim, comparing them to landfill emissions and global air conditioning use. He said what worries him more are warnings emerging from within the AI industry itself.
The EPA finalized a rule dismantling most of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for power plants, claiming the Clean Air Act doesn't authorize requiring pollution control technology it deems unproven. The agency also proposed eliminating all remaining greenhouse gas emissions requirements for power plants, asserting their emissions have no meaningful climate impact.
Maersk has installed a giant spinning cylinder, known as a rotor sail, on one of its cargo vessels carrying 8,700 shipping containers. The 115-foot-tall device uses wind power through the Magnus effect to help propel the ship, reducing the amount of fuel the engines need to burn.
A new study finds that as global temperatures rise, thawing permafrost, drying forests, wildfires, and warming wetlands are releasing additional methane and carbon dioxide that current climate models largely fail to account for. Researchers estimate these natural feedback loops could amplify overall global warming by 20% to 30% by the end of the century, adding between 0.2C and 0.4C depending on how aggressively nations cut fossil fuel emissions.
Researchers have identified additional greenhouse gas feedback loops, where rising temperatures themselves trigger further emissions, that are not fully accounted for in current climate models. Their analysis suggests these overlooked mechanisms could accelerate global warming by as much as 30% beyond existing projections.
Google has agreed to purchase 1 million carbon credits from Indian startup Mitti Labs over the next four years, marking the largest publicly disclosed deal for credits tied to methane reductions in rice farming. The project will pay farmers in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana to shorten how long rice fields stay flooded, cutting methane emissions by roughly half and water use by about 40% without hurting yields. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
A new analysis draws on atmospheric measurement records and emission datasets to explain why global methane concentrations temporarily plateaued rather than kept rising. Researchers attribute the pause primarily to increases in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and a geographic shift of those emissions toward the Southern Hemisphere, which altered atmospheric chemistry governing methane's main removal pathway via hydroxyl radicals.
Researchers have developed a plasma technology approach aimed at reducing the heavy carbon footprint associated with cement production, one of the most emissions-intensive industrial sectors globally. The method targets the chemical and energy-intensive steps in making cement, offering a potential pathway to lower greenhouse gas output from an industry long considered difficult to decarbonize.