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Revealed: VW, Ford and Tesla batteries linked to destructive deforestation of indigenous lands

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By Stefano Valentino in Sulawesi and Ajit Niranjan .The Guardian.  Excerpt: Volkswagen, Ford and Tesla are among the electric carmakers whose batteries may contain nickel mined in indigenous woodlands plagued by deforestation, an analysis has found, highlighting the struggle to make vehicles that are free from environmental destruction. Corporate disclosures and trade flows from the last two years show mines in the battery supply chains of automotive giants are linked to the loss of trees in Sulawesi, a wildlife hotspot in Indonesia that houses the world’s largest nickel deposits. The metal is widely used in cathodes in car batteries because it boosts energy density and increases range. Ore from the Cahaya and Hengjaya mines was traced through regional smelters and Chinese processing plants run by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, a cathode manufacturer that supplies CATL, the world’s largest battery maker. Huayou’s corporate reports list US and European carmakers as end-users, while addi...
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Plug-In Solar Panels Could Cut Your Energy Bill by $50 a Month—No Installation Required

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By Kathy Barnes, Better Homes and Gardens.  Excerpt: “If you’ve ever wanted to try solar power without committing to rooftop panels, permits, or installation costs, plug-in panels might be the way to go. Plug-in solar panels won’t power your entire home or replace a rooftop system. But in the right setting—with good sunlight and realistic expectations—they can trim energy costs, reduce daytime grid use, and make solar more accessible.” ...Unlike traditional rooftop solar systems, these units don’t require permanent installation. Anyone can use plug-in solar units, including renters , and place them on a balcony or patio, in the yard, or near a sunny window, with a power cord plugged into an outdoor-rated outlet. ...Experts say that a 300- to 400-watt system can reduce daytime electricity use by 5% to 15%, depending on how much sunlight it captures and your usage habits. ...A starter plug-in solar system has a relatively low barrier to entry. Smaller systems cost up to $800 for a 4...
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Heatwave season has quietly grown by 39 days, arriving sooner and lasting longer

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By Eric Ralls , earth.com.  Excerpt: The heatwave season has stretched by about 39 days since 1979, with the biggest shifts in dry regions and a recent rise in fast-peaking heat. Scientists have mostly judged heatwaves by how often they strike, how hot they get and how long they last. When they show up in the year has drawn far less attention, and that timing is shifting across most of the world’s land. A new global analysis finds that the heatwave season now starts earlier, ends later and has been stretching at both ends since the late 1970s. Between 1979 and 2023, the first heatwave of the warm season arrived about two weeks earlier, and the last one ended about 24 days later. Put together, the stretch from first heatwave to last grew by roughly 39 days. The researchers counted heat that’s unusual for the date, so an early heatwave isn’t always as hot as one in midsummer. Wenfang Xu of the South China Botanical Garden , part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , is the study’s fir...
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New Colorado Neighborhood Could Offer Glimpse into the Future of Home Energy Use

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By Phil McKenna , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: KEN CARYL, Colo.—A new residential development south of Denver is the testing ground for an unusual partnership that could transform home heating and cooling across the country. Dandelion Energy, a geothermal startup, and Lennar, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, recently completed construction of nearly 100 homes at the base of Colorado’s Front Range, each equipped with its own ground-source heat pump. The systems use less electricity than even the most efficient air-source heat pumps, potentially helping Colorado meet its climate goals while reducing peak energy demand and eliminating the need for new gas pipelines.  Ground-source heat pumps draw on steady temperatures belowground to help heat and cool buildings. ...Installing the devices across dozens of similar new homes at once also eliminates the need for custom plans for each building and avoids potentially costly retrofits to the buildings’ heating, ventilation a...
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Fervo Energy Achieves First Power at Cape Station, a Landmark Moment for the Future of Enhanced Geothermal Systems

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Fervo Energy press release.  Excerpt: Fervo Energy (Nasdaq: FRVO), a global pioneer of next-generation geothermal energy, today announced that Cape Station , its flagship geothermal development in Beaver County, Utah, has achieved First Power, marking the first time a utility-scale enhanced geothermal development has reached this milestone anywhere in the world....Fervo uses horizontal drilling techniques adapted from the oil and gas industry, allowing multiple wells to be drilled from a single pad and unlocking geothermal resources that were previously inaccessible with traditional technology.  “Cape Station works because we treated the subsurface like an engineering challenge,” said Jack Norbeck, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Fervo Energy. “Years of drilling, completion design, subsurface modeling, and flow testing led to this moment, and this is the validation that matters most. First Power is proof the science works.” ...Enhanced geothermal draws continu...
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Energy Secretary Dismisses Reports of ‘Blanket Ban’ on Diesel Exports

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By  Maxine Joselow , The New York Times. The New York Times. Excerpt: “Nobody wants a full blanket ban or zero exports of diesel,” [Energy Secretary Chris] Wright said. ...Asked why he did not see a brighter future for solar energy in the United States, Mr. Wright said, “Every day, actually, the sun goes down, it doesn’t produce power at all.” While it is true that solar panels can only produce power when the sun is shining, enormous batteries can store excess electricity generated during the day for use around the clock. Mr. Wright also defended the Energy Department’s cancellation of more than $7.5 billion in grants for clean energy projects in states that had voted for Democrats. He told Congress in June that politics had nothing to do with the decision. Federal officials later acknowledged in court documents that they had rescinded the funding “based solely” on political considerations....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/climate/chris-wright-trump-ener...
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Protecting tropical forests is more cost-effective for biodiversity and climate than restoration

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By Leonardo S. Miranda   et al, Science.  Editor's Summary: Restoring degraded ecosystems is increasingly recognized as necessary for maintaining biodiversity but may be less effective than avoiding degradation in the first place. Miranda et al . used counterfactual scenarios to compare the cost-effectiveness of different protection strategies in the Brazilian Amazon tropical forest, a globally important area for biodiversity and carbon storage that is threatened by deforestation and forest disturbances. Avoiding deforestation was most effective (and cost-effective) for carbon storage, whereas avoiding disturbances (fire and logging) had the most benefits for biodiversity. Restoration was least effective for both outcomes. Combining all three types of interventions was necessary to create net-positive outcomes, showing that restoration still has an important role to play. —Bianca Lopez.  Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx9928 . 
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