Solutions & Sustainability
Rich data on the global state of our feathered friends presents plenty of bad news — but also some bright spots.
There may be more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world’s oil, coal, and gas combined. It could be the perfect “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future.
We will have a better shot at improving our lives once we come to understand, know, and love the people we will one day become.
If we took the values and principles of cooperation to the next level, we could effectively tackle many crises.
Walking is rarer in the U.S. compared to similar nations. It is also deadlier: Nearly 7,500 pedestrians were killed in 2021.
Old coal mines can be converted into “gravity batteries” by retrofitting them with equipment that raises and lowers giant piles of sand.
Wind farms seem less productive when scientists incorporate more realistic atmospheric models into their output predictions.
Dig a 70-mile tunnel under the Bering Strait, and you get this amazing InterContinental Railway, which will reshape the world.
The jail environment teaches the animals that approaching humans results in a boring and annoying experience.
Civil engineer Martin Lebek has a brilliant plan to redress the world’s phosphorus imbalance.
Quelle horreur! Paris isn’t just a 15-minute city; it’s a five-minute city.
3D-printing robots are being used to build a 100-home housing development in the US state of Texas.
An innovation’s value is found between the technophile’s promises and the Luddite’s doomsday scenarios.
It’s sustainable, nutritious and delicious. Scientists need to ramp up efforts to meet this urgent need.
Simple physics makes hauling vast ice chunks thousands of miles fiendishly difficult — but not impossible.
Smoke taint from wildfires is gross, even to wine amateurs.
Innovative thinking has done away with problems that long dogged the electric devices — and both scientists and environmentalists are excited about the possibilities.
Entrenched business wisdom says that community-led economic systems are pure fantasy. Douglas Rushkoff disagrees.
Why can’t more rainwater be collected for the long, dry spring and summer when it’s needed?
The media sells bad news, but scientific evidence shows that we are making progress toward a greener planet.
Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep, building on the sea floor is out of the question.
Goodbye, Arabica? Learn to love Liberica.
It’s an agricultural moonshot: Scientists hope to increase plant yields by hacking photosynthesis, the process that powers life on Earth.
Retired astronaut Ron Garan believes that before we can begin solving our problems, we must understand our interrelatedness through the “orbital perspective.”
Wizbang innovations capture the public’s imagination, but thoughtful, incremental development is often more valuable to those in need.
Synthetic milk is not a sci-fi fantasy; it already exists.
It’s on a 100,000-year timescale, though, so the next few centuries might not be so comfortable.
Environmental activists want us to feel “flight shame” if we can take a train, instead. But this isn’t entirely realistic, even in Europe.