Posts tagged with 'energy'
Cities and towns in the Mediterranean and the Middle East have long used white or light-colored roofs and walls to help keep people cool. Today, cities from Ahmedabad to Singapore are also turning to cool roofs to reduce urban heat ...
At 5 a.m., an electric bus glides out of its depot after charging overnight, ready to carry children to school without spewing diesel fumes. As the city stirs, heat pumps have already brought homes and offices to a comfortable temperature, ...
Most electric vehicle (EV) batteries are retired with as much as 70% to 80% of their original capacity remaining. They still work, but their performance no longer matches automotive requirements that demand full charging capacity for long-range driving. Over time, ...
When fuel queues stretch for kilometers and commuters wait hours hoping public transport will eventually show up, the fragility of Ethiopia’s transport systems becomes impossible to ignore. A recent national fuel crisis — triggered by global supply disruptions after the ...
There’s a growing housing crisis that’s impossible to ignore. Consider the stats: Nearly 3 billion people lack access to housing that is both safe and connected to basic services like energy, water and sanitation. Around 40% of the world’s population lives in ...
In Shenzhen’s Houhai Central District, summer temperatures climb higher each year. Last summer, the city recorded a blistering 37.5 degrees C (99.5 degrees F), one of its hottest days in decades. For residents in dense, aging apartment blocks, staying cool ...
On a hot summer afternoon, the difference between one city block and the next can feel like a different world. On one street, the sun beats down from above while the pavement radiates heat from below. Just around the corner, ...
Cities have always been shaped by the infrastructure they choose to host. Railways defined the industrial city. Highways reorganized post-war suburbs. Metro systems and airports rewired the geography of globalized urban economies. Today, another form of infrastructure is expanding rapidly ...
A decade ago, scientists believed that unchecked global warming could heat the world to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above preindustrial levels sometime around 2045. It now looks like we could pass this critical threshold as soon as 2030. Indeed, some research ...
On a hot day in February 2024, volunteers dispersed across Cape Town, South Africa, with sensors affixed to their cars. Their aim was to measure heat differences across the city. In Cape Town’s dense, highly developed center, they recorded air temperatures ...
With electricity prices up nearly 30% since 2010 across the United States, governors and state policymakers are under growing pressure to help households manage rising energy costs. Many are now turning to an emerging technology gaining traction in Europe: plug-in solar, also ...
AI tools like ChatGPT, navigation apps and streaming platforms feel effortless, drawing information seemingly from thin air. Yet the infrastructure behind them is anything but invisible. Across the country, a surge of new data centers is reshaping local energy grids, ...
We are in the midst of a great economic shift — one that will shape livelihoods and growth for decades to come. The rise of AI and digitalization, geopolitical changes, uneven population growth, and the urgent need to cut emissions ...
The center of gravity for climate progress is shifting. Increasingly, many of the countries driving the global climate transition are those that have contributed the least to historical emissions yet are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts. Emerging economies are showing ...
As we enter a new year, people around the world are grappling with rising costs for housing, energy and food. Most worry about the state of the economy. Job prospects feel uncertain in the face of widespread AI, automation and other disruptions. These concerns ...
