List of Energy and the Environment articles
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An aerial view of ships carrying coal sit near a coal-fired power plant on Nov. 11, 2021, in Hanchuan, Hubei province, China. China Must Pay a Price for Climate Inaction
Preventing catastrophe is now as much about sticks as it is about carrots.
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Protesters gather with signs to object to the extension of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) at Trafalgar Square on Aug. 5, in London. What Cities Can Teach Countries About Tackling Climate Change
Urban areas have made more progress than national governments on climate change—and offer a compelling political roadmap.
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This aerial photo shows staff members repairing a flood-damaged section of Fengtai-Shacheng Railway in Beijing on Aug. 8. On the Highway to Climate Hell
The world's infrastructure was built for a climate that no longer exists.
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A farmer holding a large chainsaw steps across the severed trunk of a downed tree as he cuts trees to plant coca at a plantation in Colombia. Behind him are more trees in the Amazon rainforest. How Drugs Are Destroying the Amazon
In the world’s largest rainforest, cocaine and deforestation are increasingly linked.
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U.S. President Joe Biden tours the TSMC Semiconductor Manufacturing Facility in Phoenix, Arizona, on Dec. 6, 2022. No Water, No Workers, No Chips
TSMC and other tech giants need to take climate into account or risk seeing their investments go up in smoke.
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Women wash ore in the artisanal copper-cobalt mine of Kamilombe, near the city of Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 20. Africa’s Critical Minerals Could Power America’s Green Energy Transition
Biden’s IRA is shutting African countries out of supply chains for critical minerals. Including them would be a strategic and diplomatic win.
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Two Uzbek soldiers, both wearing camouflage and helmets and holding rifles, stand on either side of a metal gate with a stop sign at its center. Behind the fence is a flat field, and farther in the distance are trees and a blue sky. The Water Wars Are Coming to Central Asia
Things have been bad for decades, but the Taliban threaten to make them worse.
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The logo of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is a gridmarked circle with the red letters TSMC over it, hangs from the ceiling of a large lobby. Energy Is Taiwan’s Achilles’ Heel
In the U.S.-China tech standoff, supply vulnerabilities give Beijing leverage.
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A lithium mine supervisor inspects an evaporation pond of lithium-rich brine in the Atacama Desert in Salar de Atacama, Chile. The Mineral-Rich Want to Get Richer
The world’s biggest reserves of lithium and nickel are concentrated in a handful of nations. And they want to cash in.
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Workers stand beside bags of cobalt and copper at a processing plant in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Dec. 1, 2011. China’s Threat to Ban Critical Minerals Exports Is a Bluff
Embargoes have unintended consequences—and would hurt China more than the West.
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People walk in the distance atop cracked soil in a dried-up irrigation canal through a wheat field in Iraqi Kurdistan's Rania district. The Cradle of Civilization Is Drying Up
Climate change endangers the Tigris and Euphrates—but it’s not the only reason the rivers are vanishing.
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A view of a spent nuclear fuel storage site at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. How Worried Should We Be About Zaporizhzhia?
It’s not Chernobyl 2.0. But experts say Russian threats to cause a catastrophe shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.
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An employee of Air Liquide in front of an electrolyzer at the company's future hydrogen production facility of renewable hydrogen in Oberhausen, Germany. Hydrogen Is the Future—or a Complete Mirage
The green-hydrogen industry is a case study in the potential—for better and worse—of our new economic era.
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A German Navy Sea King helicopter arrives on the Germany Navy frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the Baltic Sea near Rostock, Germany, on June 5. The First Job for NATO’s New Baltic Bloc
Pipelines, ports, and cables in and around the Baltic Sea are as critical as they are vulnerable.
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A crowd of activists march down a street in Seoul. Some protesters hold signs and banners, and a man in the center of the street jumps above the rest as he catches a giant inflatable ball painted to look like the Earth. Fukushima Disposal Plans Put Tokyo in Hot Water
Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water into the ocean is heating up tensions in East Asia.
