Mining the ocean floor for critical minerals was already controversial, but a new groundbreaking scientific study has thrown the industry into chaos as countries negotiate its future.
At a meeting of the United Nations’ International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Jamaica, running from July 15 to Aug 2, countries are negotiating rules to govern deep sea mining. The regulations have been under development for years, but the clock has been running out on an agreement.
There is a universe in which the so-called “natural” gas industry reinvents itself, gracefully transitioning to alternative forms of genuinely renewable energy, aiding in our shared need to rapidly reduce emissions and supporting worker transition for the future.
Sadly, that does not appear to be the universe in which we live.
Electric Vehicles Strain the Automaker-Big Oil Alliance
In the clean car battle, the oil industry leans on friends—including Donald Trump—to keep gasoline transport alive, while carmakers steer toward an EV future.
Politically Charged: Fourth is a series about how political polarization threatens the EV future.
The soaring electricity demands of data centers and A.I. are straining the grid in some areas, pushing up emissions and slowing the energy transition.
A few weeks ago, I joined a small group of reporters for a wide-ranging conversation with Bill Gates about climate change, its causes and potential solutions. When the topic turned to the issue of just how much energy artificial intelligence was using, Gates was surprisingly sanguine.
When BC first introduced a carbon tax in 2008 the point was to apply it to all emissions causing climate change, but start at a low rate and increase it over time. Yet, as the carbon tax has increased for households at the gas pump and to heat homes, large industrial players—including the oil and gas industry that is causing climate change—have steadily evaded their carbon tax.
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma has asked a provincial watchdog to look into a series of bold claims about how an executive at a Canadian oil and gas giant — and former BC NDP political staffer — claimed the company had leveraged political connections to persuade the provincial government to significantly weaken its environmental policies.
