David Fickling

Overvalued offsets are nothing new. But some emissions-reduction projects don’t appear to exist at all, a Bloomberg investigation found

China’s worst mining disaster in decades feels like an echo of a past it has long sought to forget. The blast, which has killed at least 82 people at a pit in Liushenyu in the Shanxi coal belt, is the worst since 2009.

China’s worst mining disaster in decades feels like an echo of a past it has long sought to forget. The blast, which has killed at least 82 people at a pit in Liushenyu in the Shanxi coal belt, is the worst since 2009.

Big businesses can behave like addicts. Faced with an uncertain landscape, they’ll often do everything they can to resist change, even as they insist they’re doing their best to adapt. Outside enablers make the problem worse. When the gap between narrative and reality grows too wide, the result is often a crash.

You can thank Brussels’ bureaucrats for the gradual disappearance of the tangled web of mobile-phone charging cables in your desk drawer. If only the European Union could be as far-sighted in regulating its biggest battery-powered devices: trucks.

Most people in reasonable health could probably complete a 100-meter run without serious ill effects. Get them to jog non-stop for 24 hours, and they might be in serious danger.

Cities are becoming dangerous places at night due to rising temperatures. Lack of cool nights strains the body, increasing risks of serious health issues. This problem is growing fastest in developing megacities. Urban expansion worsens heat by removing natural cooling elements. Greening cities offers solutions, but requires significant ambition.

If only we could get reliable, cheap, clean energy without annoying anyone, anywhere. South Korea and France think they have the solution. Don’t get too excited about it.

The idea of putting such power generation infrastructure in urban spaces is an appealing alternative to using farmland. But it distracts us from the challenge of decarbonizing an economy and the hard trade-offs that come with it.

Almost every one of those electrical devices, however, depends on the same aluminum that's disappearing from the refrigerators of Indian supermarkets.