Lifeboat Foundation

Airships might seem like a technology from a bygone era, but a startup says their new design could become a crucial cog in the green hydrogen supply chain.

While transitioning away from fossil fuels will prove crucial in our efforts to combat climate change, it’s easier said than done for some industries. While road and rail transport are rapidly electrifying, in aviation, batteries are a long way from being able to provide the weight-to-power ratio required for aviation. And even the largest batteries are still not big enough to power a container ship on long-distance crossings.

Hydrogen is increasingly being seen as a promising alternative for these hard to decarbonize sectors. It has a higher energy density than natural gas and can either be burned in internal combustion engines or combined with oxygen in a fuel cell to create electricity.

“Ocean Battery resolves a societal challenge to provide access to renewable power generation without destabilizing the power grid and meet our climate goals. The Dutch Water engineers resolved this problem in a brilliant yet simple way with a tremendous amount of creativity, innovation power and Dutch entrepreneurship,” the press release continues.

Keep reading for more on this exciting new piece of technology, that could be revolutionary for the transition to cleaner means of energy.

Rutgers professor Jason Barr has proposed adding 1,760-acres of reclaimed land, named New Mannahatta, to the tip of Manhattan to provide housing and combat climate change.

Called New Mannahatta in reference to the indigenous name for the island in New York, the plan would extend Manhattan Island into New York Harbor beyond the Statue of Liberty.

Barr, a professor of economics at Rutgers University, outlined his plan in an opinion piece directed at the city’s mayor Eric Adams, which was recently published in the New York Times.

Tesla asks for help… SpaceX stacks… Elon Musk pays in Doge. It’s the free edition of Musk Reads #286.

And for our premium members — last week, you learned about Moon Bikes. This week, you will hear from author Jimmy Soni about what Musk’s earliest success reveals about his management style.

Continue reading “Tesla pushes back” »

The discovery may be the strongest evidence yet that people reached the Americas thousands of years earlier than many archaeologists thought.

Between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago, people squished through the mud along a lakeshore in what is now New Mexico, alone and in small groups, leaving behind their footprints. Or at least that’s the conclusion of a new paper that Oregon State University, Corvallis, archaeologist Loren Davis calls “potentially groundbreaking.” If the dates are right, the discovery would be the strongest evidence yet that people reached the Americas during the middle of the last ice age, thousands of years earlier than many archaeologists thought.

“If that’s true … it’s going to be a revolution in the way that we think about archaeology in the Americas,” says Davis, who wasn’t involved with the work. It might reignite debates about how people first reached the continent from Asia. But Davis and others would like corroboration of the surprising dates before they rewrite their understanding of when and how people arrived.

Continue reading “Human footprints near ice age lake suggest surprisingly early arrival in the Americas” »

In a way, it could mean climate change is linked to an “immature technosphere”.

It’s called an epiphenomenon.

Continue reading “Can a planet ‘think’? The bold idea gets new backing” »

Turlock Irrigation District (TID) has announced Project Nexus, a pilot project to build solar panel canopies over a portion of TID’s existing canals to operate and research how water-plus-energy can meet California’s needs for climate resiliency.

The Project Nexus could contribute to a more water resilient future for California and position the State to meet its ambitious clean energy goals. The Project will assess the reduction of water evaporation resulting from mid-day shade and wind mitigation; improvements to water quality through reduced vegetative growth; reduction in canal maintenance through reduced vegetative growth; and generation of renewable electricity.

The inspiration for Project Nexus comes from the concept presented in a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Merced, and UC Santa Cruz, which found many advantages to mounting solar panels over open water canals. The study showed that covering the approximately 4,000 miles of California canals could save 63 billion gallons of water annually. This amount of water could be used to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people.

Unleashed cosmic ray bombardment may have eaten up ozone, driving short-term climate swings.

There is a whole range of possibilities when it comes to prefabricated modular housing—some might be as simple as a prefab cabin in the woods or a home office in the backyard; others are designed as stackable and programmable smart homes, perhaps strong enough to withstand natural disasters or for seniors looking to age in place affordably.

Whatever it may be, the prefab industry continues to evolve. Singapore-based Nestron is yet another contender in this ever-expanding field, now offering the Nestron Cube Two X (C2X). This rather futuristic-looking smart living pod measures a relatively generous 377 square feet (35 square meters)—a sizable increase in floor area compared to the company’s 280-square-foot (26-square-meter) Cube Two of the same series, which was launched back in 2020, and is designed for three to four inhabitants. Additionally, the Cube Two X comes in two versions: either a one-bedroom or two-bedroom unit with different floor layouts within the same footprint.

Similar to the preceding Cube Two, the 18,000-pound (8,000-kilogram) Cube Two X sports an ultra-sleek exterior that features an insulated, FRP-paneled, galvanized steel frame, which the company says was designed to weather out natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and typhoons. However, the company notes that further fortifications can be done for clients looking for something even more resistant.