How red onions can help solar cells No, they don’t make them cry. Apparently the red dye in the onions is a good UV protectant, eliminating the need for more toxic alternatives. The researchers behind the new study found that combining nanocellulose with a dye made from red onion skin extract…

How a pop star is mobilizing fans to help the environment According to Adam Met, the bass player for the popular indie-band, AJR, building a fan base is similar to mobilizing civic action. He collaborated with colleague Mila Rosenthal to form Planet Reimagined and the fans are loving it. On their…

The future of education: no set curriculum, no teachers, more democracy Brightworks is a K-12 school in San Francisco. Students explore their passions and collaborators (the adults in the room) help them do that. Along the way, students pick up what they need to learn. Could this be a model for…

Breaking news: High Seas Treaty ratified by over 60 countries, becoming law Morocco and Sierra Leone just ratified the High Seas Treaty, becoming the 60th and 61st country to do so. This puts the treaty over a threshold, making it legally binding. It establishes legally binding rules to conserve…

Korean institute zaps mixed plastic with hydrogen laser Recycling plastic is a big headache with only a tiny fraction being recovered. But researchers at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) has come up with a process using hydrogen to turn mixed plastics back into raw materials,…

Why we should teach kids the vocabulary of Nature We humans use words to talk about things that matter to us. As our lives become more urban, we are becoming disconnected from Nature and losing the vocabulary to talk about it. Unless we want our children to be living in WALL-E’s world, we need to…

Sun Day, Sept 21, is a day to celebrate solar energy SunDay is a national event in support of renewable energy. Find an event near you. Sun Day is a day of action to celebrate the power of clean energy and stand up to the billionaires trying to stop it. On September 21st, people everywhere will be…

How Earth Law can help a polluted lake Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the United Kingdom, providing much of their freshwater, but it’s a polluted mess from agricultural runoff and sewage. It was so bad, the locals held a funereal wake. But da-dada-DAH, Earth Law to the rescue! Check out the…

School bus drivers breathe easier driving an electric bus They probably thought their headaches were from the screaming children. Instead they discovered they had been getting sick from diesel fumes. Photo by Yura Forrat on Pexels.com Researchers from the World Resources Institute talked to bus…

Wind turbines without blades? It looks a bit like a modern day Stone Henge: sleek, upright spires in an arc. But it’s a wind power installation in windy Normandy. While they don’t produce enormous amounts of energy, they’re lightweight and easy for a landowner to install. They could provide power…

How states are funding climate resilience The Feds have somehow talked themselves into believing climate change doesn’t hurt people, but states aren’t having it. Here are several ways states are funding climate resilience projects in the wake of FEMA and EPA cuts fueled by Federal willful…

Europe is trying to preserve climate data in the face of NOAA cuts What the current administration calls “Green Fake Scam science,” the rest of the world is calling essential. Horrified by cuts to NOAA, current and planned, European governments are trying to backfill the role it has played in…

How to know if the end is nigh Human societies have been collapsing for thousands of years. How would we know if ours was on the brink? According to Cambridge researcher and author Dr. Luke Kemp, look for increasing inequality. What we have gotten used to calling civilization—societies with steep…

It’s time to turn out lights or pull your drapes for birds Daylight Saving Time might not yet be over. But birds are beginning their fall migration in the US. You can help by closing drapes or turning out your lights inside and outside your home. This is especially important in tall buildings. And…

A bee’s best friend Maple, a Springer Spaniel, used to search for cadavers. After an on the job injury, she was sidelined…and restless. But now she has a new career, searching out a disease that wipes out honeybee colonies. Here she is in her beekeeper suit.

Are there forever chemicals in your drinking water? The NRDC has analyzed drinking water data from the EPA for PFAS (a group of forever chemicals.) Note their map is based on population, not concentrations, so rural counties with a small population may look to be at less risk than they are. New…

Solar farms must address this ecological issue According to researchers at Murdoch University, birds and bats can mistake solar farms for lakes while they are migrating. This can pull them off course or cause collisions. Fortunately, there are solutions. Coatings can reduce glare. So if a big…

Review of Dragonfly’s Question (my novel) Matt Biggar, author of Connected to Place, recently posted a review of Dragonfly’s Question. I thought you’d find it interesting. I hope you’ll consider reading the novel and sharing it with others. It reveals how we can weave together various…

Cooking with algae? EVOO seems to show up on all the cooking shows, but olive oil might have a more eco-friendly competitor: algae oil. It might not sound appealing at first, but it actually has benefits. Using sources which include the TerraVia Sustainability Report, the brand determined that the…

Heat pumps for industry You likely are well aware of the benefits of heat pumps in the home, but what about industry? According to the American Lung Association, industries that require moderate heating could save us $1 trillion in healthcare costs by 2050 if they switched out fossil fuel burners…

Colorado pays to plug old oil/gas wells Our country is littered with over 3.5 million abandoned and marginally producing oil and gas wells. They keep seeping methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The owners don’t want to foot the bill to cap these wells. So the State of Colorado is paying them to get…

What happens to old merch? Pop stars get oodles of money by selling merchandise. But far too often, a lot goes unsold. Billie Eilish and her mom discovered 400,000 unsold T-shirts and associated products in a warehouse. They’ve set up a recycling system and hope more in the music industry will…

Natural gas is about to get expensive while the cost of renewables sinks Take a look at this set of charts. So why would the US promote more expensive energy sources and undermine support for renewables? Somehow, they’ve cut subsidies to renewables but kept subsidies for fossil fuel companies.…

Another way EVs clean the air We already knew that electric vehicles (hybrids, plug-ins and all battery) produced less or no tailpipe emissions. In a California study, when EV ownership went up by 2 percent in a zip code, asthmatic children visits to the emergency room dropped by over 3 percent.…

Reminder: follow me on Substack This blog is for news. I'm using Substack for longer, reflective pieces and reports, my ideas for making the world better. Subscribe to Darcy’s Substack

Solar panels for indoors Solar panels convert light to power. But outdoors, their production can be diminished by clouds, dust, pollen and of course nighttime. Taiwan's National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University has developed panels that can produce a similar amount of energy from indoor lighting.…

Utility scale battery systems that won’t set your neighborhood on fire As we deploy more renewable energy, we need a way to store it. Communities may be wary of lithium ion batteries which have had some spectacular fires. But there are a lot of other options. Since my County is looking into…

When will internal combustion cars peak in your state? Sooner than you think. Most of the cars on the road in the US still use gas or diesel. But sooner than you think, that will change. When electric vehicle sales reach 30 percent, the number of internal combustion cars start a permanent decline.…

Go off road in this innovative Chinese plug-in SUV which charges in 9 minutes Most plug-in hybrids in the US have a pitiful range (like 30-75 miles on electric) before you have to switch to gas. That’s fine for puttering around town. But the Zeekr 9X has an electric battery, with a range of 236…

How Montana solved their housing crisis During Covid, a lot of people wanted to move to Montana. What had been a local housing issue became a state-wide one. The legislature only meets for 90 days every two years so they had to push through a lot of legislation to create what some are calling the…

Finally, world is investing 2x in clean energy vs fossil fuels Investments in oil, natural gas and coal continue to slip away. Money is now going into renewables and other clean energy technologies at twice the rate of fossil fuels. And Americans who think climate change is happening outnumber…

Hanoi banning gas motorcycles, more to come To clean the air and cut down on noise, Hanoi will ban gas powered motorcycles starting next summer. It’s expected the bans will extend to cars and also other districts over time. The plan will go into effect on July 1, 2026, and then will expand the…

Breaking news: Colorado students win 7-2 to get more climate science in K-12 People in Durango will recognize Aisha O’Neil as the upbeat and passionate former head of the high school green team. Now at the University of Colorado Boulder, she formed a coalition of 20 schools to push the State Board…

Wolves finally bring aspen back to Yellowstone Quaking aspen saplings are quite tasty, to elk and deer at least. When wolves disappeared from Yellowstone, elk herds swelled so much that aspen saplings got munched down before they could develop into full sized trees. But after thirty years of…

Learn about ecocentric Earth Law at Climate Week Are you or someone you know going to Climate Week in NYC? If so, I invite you to attend this event put on in part by my colleagues at the Earth Law Center. Learn about this delightfully disruptive, emerging field of law that is giving Nature a…

New electrolyte solves an EV charging problem: 180+ miles in 4 minutes Lots of companies and research institutions are trying to reduce the long charging times for electricity vehicles. Solid state batteries may help but they’re a whole new system. In China, there are cars that can charge in a few…

Neanderthals could have played Bolero or Beethoven on this flute Archeologists have dug up a musical instrument, a flute, built by Neanderthals over 43000 years ago. But what did it sound like and how were they played? Come to find out, this flute made from a cave bear bone, has a diatonic scale…

Substack: here’s my approach for now Thank you all for your advice about Substack and other platforms. Here’s what I’m planning to do at this point: BLOG: I will keep posting news items on this blog, typically one per day. These posts typically summarize stories I come across in my newsfeeds.…

Grow your own goji berries A pound of dried goji berries will set you back about $15. Fortunately they're easy to grow and harvest. Here's a bit about my experience.

Boston’s approach to climate resilience: get on with it Boston is sinking while the sea level is rising. Not a good scenario. However, they’ve assessed their vulnerabilities and are implementing plans to address them. Has your city done this yet? Humans adapt, both good and bad Venice has learned…

Colorado will build one of the biggest wildlife overpasses Imagine you’re an elk or a pronghorn sheep wanting to cross six lanes of I-25. Gnarly situation. But by the end of this year, the Greenland Overpass (named after a Colorado town, not the country), one of the largest in the country, will…

This is why you should recycle batteries; don’t toss in the trash Created by Perplexity AI So many items have batteries! Not just flashlights and laptops. It’s also toothbrushes, earbuds, and TV remotes. San Ramon Valley Fire Department suspects that a fire that started in a garbage truck could…

Nissan’s EV released in China at $16,500 Nissan is competing with China’s BYD, releasing an inexpensive but not stripped down electric sedan. The main reason it can be sold at this price is the lithium iron phosphate battery, much cheaper to build than lithium ion batteries. The models can go…

Slate: an electric truck you can accessorize like Barbie Not a fan of Tesla’s cybertruck, its price or its founder? Slate is offering an affordable, customizable truck/SUV. You can change the color and features, even after you buy it. Maybe you need to carry plywood today and half the soccer team…

Polestar & Chinese EV beat Tesla in the cold Norwegians wanted to know how different electric vehicles perform in the cold. So they tested 23 different models when the weather was in the upper teens Fahrenheit (minus 2 to minus 10 C.) Polestar came out on top. A Chinese luxury sedan beat Tesla by…

The fountain of youth for old EV batteries An electric vehicle’s lithium-ion battery pack may drop to 80 percent in about a decade. But Chinese researchers have discovered the fountain of youth for batteries. Artificial intelligence pointed them to a lithium salt solution (lithium…

To Substack or not to Substack? Readers, I have a question for you. My blog gets out in a variety of ways. Maybe you get it via email or LinkedIn or Bluesky. But more and more, I’m seeing references to Substack, which seems to be gaining popularity. So I’m wondering if I should switch, or post…

Permissive gun laws lead to more youth deaths according to JAMA Pediatrics On average, a child or teen dies from a gun every 2 hours and 48 minutes in the US: suicides, shootings and gun accidents. According to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, states with permissive gun laws have had a lot…

Growing food from fog The Atacama desert in Chile is the driest desert on earth. But people there are learning how to grow lettuce and lemons from fog. Amid barren rocky hills and dry, white sand, the system works by using a mesh suspended between two poles that intercepts the small amount of…

Breaking news: The State of the Climate Report is out I’m not referring to the questionable, redacted report released by the US government. This is from the American Meteorological Society and the list of contributors covers seven pages in a tiny font. Let the climate deniers explain that. Read…