Nuclear fusion has been a pipe dream for decades, but it might actually be on the cusp of commercial viability

In the packed field of prospective net-zero solutions, nuclear fusion stands out in its scope and ambition. By successfully replicating the reaction that powers the sun, humanity could—in the words of Stephen Hawking—unlock an “inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming.” Fusion development has progressed at a glacial pace for decades, however, and breakthroughs have been intermittent at best.

U.S. states lead the way in taking Big Oil to court

In courtrooms around the United States, climate lawyers are tightening the screws on Big Oil. From California to Colorado, Hawaii, and Rhode Island, no fewer than 20 states are seeking damages against dozens of the world’s largest fossil fuel firms. The argument? That these corporations’ extractive enterprises are responsible for decades of environmental destruction—and, crucially, that they have misled the American people about the true nature of the damage.

Serbia’s Pedro Arrupe Integration House — Providing Unaccompanied Refugee Children the Childhood they Deserve

Located midway between the Middle East and Western Europe, Serbia was hit hard by the “refugee crisis” of 2015. Fleeing war and chronic economic insecurity, of refugees arrived in the Balkan country, most destined for the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Among their ranks were thousands of unaccompanied children: alone, vulnerable, and in urgent need of specialist care.

Peatlands in peril: The race to save the bogs that slow climate change

In the middle of the 20th century, Finland started modernizing. Like most of Europe, the Nordic nation had been left economically bereft by World War II, and needed to ramp up productivity fast. The answer, the Finnish government decided, was forestry, the country’s industrial backbone for generations. Over the next three decades, vast tracts of trees were planted, blanketing the swampy terrain that covers nearly a third of Finland’s surface: peatland.

How Covid-19 is helping us fight climate change

The arrival of COVID-19 was a crisis that few foresaw. Almost overnight, organisations and individuals had to adapt to the realities of life under a global pandemic. Across the UK, people started doing things differently, seeking solutions to the most pressing problems — from business who pivoted to make hand sanitiser and face masks, to scientists who redirected their research to fight the disease.

How Crypto is Re‑Writing the Rules of Digital Ownership

Shortly after the financial crisis of 2008, a group of tech-minded trailblazers sought a solution to the shortcomings of conventional finance. They envisaged a world underpinned not by centralized power, but by a distributed, democratic system of ownership that was inclusive, transparent and secure. This world, the crypto world, grew steadily in the years that followed. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Global lockdowns have hastened the advance of all things digital and, in this uncertain age of

How might the world meet its clean energy needs

Sixteen miles (26km) off the windswept coast of northern Scotland, the future of renewable energy is taking shape. Rotating rhythmically in the breeze, the five colossal turbines of the Hywind Scotland wind farm look much like any other off-shore wind project, bar one major difference – they're floating. While conventional offshore turbines sit atop metal and concrete towers fixed into the seabed, Hywind's turbines rest on buoyant steel keels that bob with the waves. Carefully balanced, they re

Our Hydrogen-Powered Future Is Unfolding at the Edge of the World

Perched atop the United Kingdom, ten miles north of mainland Scotland, the Orkney Islands are a wild place. Encircled by roiling waters — the North Sea on one side, the Atlantic Ocean on the other — and battered by winds year round, the weather-lashed archipelago is bracing, beautiful and has in abundance that which others are scrambling to produce: renewable power. Onshore wind turbines pepper the landscape, working in tandem with wave and tidal generators to supply Orkney’s 22,000 inhabitants

How flooded coal mines could heat homes

Coal mines were the beating heart of Britain's industrial revolution. Their sooty, energy-dense output gave life to new-fangled factories and shipyards, fuelling the nation's irrepressible march towards modernity. They helped shape a carbon-intensive economy, however, one that took little notice of the natural world around it. They paved the way for a global dependence on fossil fuels, in doing so, fired the starting pistol on the climate crisis that today confronts us all.

How Brexit left small British business out in the cold

It was billed as the rebirth of UK plc, granting British businesses freedom from the high-handed bureaucracy of Brussels. But, for many SMEs with significant EU exports, Brexit feels less like a renaissance than it does the rocky road to ruin. Engulfed by paperwork, taxes and unbearable added costs, some are having to shelve their EU operations indefinitely. Others, unwilling to sacrifice their hard-earned customer base on the Continent, are battling through the red tape, desperate to salvage what business they can. Donna Wilson, a London-based textile designer who runs an eponymous homeware business, is one of the latter, although she is finding it an uphill struggle. “Selling to Europe used to be seamless,” she says. “With the EU agreements in place, we didn’t have to deal with customs and there were no hidden charges. It was a very easy experience for us and our customers.”
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