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The wildfire on the outskirts of Athens this week burned 40 square miles of land, or an area about twice the size of Manhattan, according to satellite data from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. One person was killed and at least 78 homes were lost to the flames. Intense drought conditions, combined with soaring temperatures, have turned Greece into a tinderbox, with more than 3,500 fires ignited since May, up nearly 50% from the same period last year. More than one-third of the forests surrounding Athens have been scorched by wildfires over the last eight years.
Copernicus Emergency Management Service
The U.S. will support a United Nations treaty to cap the amount of new plastic produced annually, Reutersreported. America is one of the world’s most prolific plastic makers, and has previously supported the idea that each country should be able to manage its own production. But many other nations have called for limiting and phasing down new plastic production to curb pollution and toxic chemicals, an initiative the U.S. seems to be warming to. Most plastics are made from fossil fuels, and major producers like China and Saudi Arabia have argued that the focus should be on recycling and reusing, instead of limiting production overall. The final talks over the UN plastics treaty are scheduled for November.
Danish shipping giant Maersk is interested in studying the feasibility of nuclear-powered cargo ships. The company will team up with maritime services firm Lloyd’s Register and Core Power to figure out how a nuclear reactor could be fitted on a vessel, plus what kinds of safety precautions and regulations would need to be in place. “Nuclear power holds a number of challenges related to for example safety, waste management, and regulatory acceptance across regions, and so far, the downsides have clearly outweighed the benefits of the technology,” Ole Graa Jakobsen, Maersk’s head of fleet technology, said in a statement. “If these challenges can be addressed by development of the new so-called fourth-generation reactor designs, nuclear power could potentially mature into another possible decarbonization pathway for the logistics industry 10 to 15 years in the future,” he said. The shipping sector accounts for about 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and guidelines from the International Maritime Organization set out in 2023 require companies to cut emissions by 40% by 2030.
This week a giant, two-headed, floating offshore wind turbine has been on a 50-hour, 191-nautical-mile journey from Guangzhou, China, to its final destination in the Qingzhou IV Offshore Wind Farm in Yangjiang. Yesterday it finally arrived safely. The OceanX is the world’s largest floating wind turbine platform in terms of capacity. The company behind it, Mingyang Smart Energy, says the platform can produce 54 million kWh annually, enough to power 30,000 households. It’s made to be used in deep water and the company says it can withstand the kind of high winds and waves generated by typhoons.
New analysis finds that enacting the policies outlined in the conservative blueprint Project 2025 would result in 1.7 million fewer jobs, 2,000 pollution-related premature deaths, and boost U.S. emissions by about 780 million metric tons per year by 2030.
