The carbon cost of self-driving cars
Plus rethinking cars in cities, Source Fashion and football's Green Weekend
An MIT study has found that the widespread adoption of self-driving cars could cause a major increase in carbon emissions, Dezeen reports. The study lays the blame on the onboard computers necessary to run the cars’ systems which, it says, could generate as much greenhouse gas emissions as all the data centres in use today. "These vehicles could actually be using a ton of computer power," said one of the report’s co-authors. "They have a 360-degree view of the world, so while we have two eyes they may have 20 eyes, looking all over the place and trying to understand all the things that are happening at the same time." More here
In Getting Warmer, a new video series from Bloomberg, actor and former White House aide Kal Penn “explores solutions to the climate crisis with a dose of humor and optimism”. The first episode sees Penn examine “our toxic relationship with plastic and why we recycle so little of it. In New Jersey, he meets Tom Szaky, whose company TerraCycle promises it can recycle things like cigarette butts and dirty diapers. But does it really?” Watch it here
Do cities really need parking garages? Fast Company looks at how in the US “city planners are rethinking the role parking garages play in the urban landscape with new regulations and designs that repurpose old parking infrastructure”. “Cities were built up in ways that devoted valuable space to storing cars, did little to accommodate people who don’t own cars, and forced developers to build expensive parking structures that increased the cost of living”. That may be about to change. Read the piece here
Source Fashion is a new London-based exhibition which aims to connect “manufacturers from key sourcing regions around the world with high-profile retailers, brands, and designers who are looking to responsibly and sustainably source new products”, including fabrics and packaging. It runs from 12-14 February at Olympia. The show includes a programme of talks and panels, with speakers including Debbie Luffman of Think Circular. Tickets are free. Details here
In case you missed it, we’ve just had Green Football Weekend, which “brought together 80 of the UK’s professional football clubs, fans, families and communities to unleash the power of football on climate change”. The laudable effort was supported by the English Football League and Women’s Super League but not by the Premier League. Given its connections to fossil-fuel-based sovereign wealth funds, sponsorship from airlines, oil and gas companies, and the widespread use of short-haul flight to get to games, how serious is football really taking its role in the Climate Crisis? asks Jonathan Liew in The Guardian here