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Circulate on Fridays: Robin Chase on self-driving cars plus crop and fish farming innovation!

Every Friday, Circulate closes out the week with a selection of some of our favourite circular economy-related news from the week that was. Today, we’re sharing an in-depth take on self-driving and autonomous technologies from Robin Chase that genuinely moves the conversation forward. We’re sharing a couple of potentially exciting innovations including high tech bacteria that could make fish farming more effective and a new way of increasing crop yields without fertiliser and minimal water. But what did we miss this week? Let us know in the comments.

Will self-driving cars improve our cities or ruin them?

The kinds of conversations and articles that appear about self-driving cars and autonomous technologies are becoming increasingly familiar. They either take the form of marvelling at a latest update or step forward, or pieces posing hypothetical, but quite distant dilemmas, such as whether a self-driving car would choose to run over an elderly woman or group of school children. Cutting through the generic content, former Zipcar co-founder and owner of Peers Inc. Robin Chase has written something genuinely insightful that could move the conversation forward. Starting with the transformation that the advent of cars had on cities, the economy and the whole of society, Chase asks whether policymakers, businesses and ordinary people are truly prepared for the change that the inevitable rise of automation will bring. Through an exploration of the challenges including issues such as jobs, resource use, congestion and the healthiness of cities, she paints a picture of two potential alternatives, one where the 21st century seizes the opportunities offered by technologies such as self-driving cars, and one less optimistic vision where modern day challenges are intensified. Read the piece to find out how she thinks it might play out.

Chase’s article could hardly have come out at a more opportune time with the announcement that Uber will begin offering a self-driving vehicle service in collaboration with Volvo allowing users to hail autonomous cars. The service is expected to be available in the next few weeks, though of course city regulations will determine that the vehicles have to be occupied by a supervisor. This initiative may be more of a demonstrator than a true addition to Uber’s business for now, but it does show just how progressed these technologies are becoming.

Food innovation

A couple of food related stories have come to our attention this week. In GreenBiz, Kristine Wong focuses on the story of FeedKind, a new fish farming method that could reduce the burden on ocean stocks. In many fish farms, several pounds of wild fish are used as feed or they rely heavily on agricultural land for soy or other types of grain. FeedKind is made by dissolving methane in water with a particular kind of bacteria, which eats those molecules and ferments the mixture to form pellets that can be extruded to form pellets. The process isn’t without flaws or questions, in particular in terms of the energy picture, but the Carbon Trust has reportedly estimated that the water savings compared to other feed processes are over 75%.

Meanwhile, a French agronomist has uncovered an innovative new method for increasing crop yields. Polyter, a substance produced from a blend of cellulose, organic fertiliser and potassium polyacrylate, can be placed near the plant’s roots. When watered either by rain or farmers, the Polyter crystals act like a super sponge absorbing 97% of the water and swelling to over 500 times the size to act as a kind of pantry from which plants can draw the water and nutrients it needs.

How to be creative

Can anyone be creative? What is the ideal office environment? Listen to this BBC Business Daily podcast where members of IDEO talk about creativity, design thinking and reference strongly their collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and specifically the New Plastics Economy initiative.

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Elon Musk leads Tesla effort to build house roofs entirely out of solar panels

In latest clean energy plan, Tesla purchases SolarCity to make solar ‘shingles’: ‘It’s not a thing on the roof. It is the roof,’ CEO says

A new venture spearheaded by Elon Musk will create house roofs made entirely of solar panels, in a sweeping expansion of Tesla’s clean energy ambitions.

Tesla has finalized a $2.6bn deal to buy solar power company SolarCity to produce solar “shingles” – photovoltaic material that would be fashioned into the shape of a house roof.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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As Louisiana floods rage, Republicans are blocking modest climate action | Raul M Grijalva

If a common sense proposal for federal agencies to consider climate change in their decisions on the environment is shot down, what hope is there?

If we needed a reminder of the importance of taking climate change seriously, the floods in Louisiana are providing a big one on a daily basis. When it comes to the big environmental issues, our country’s polarization is historically unusual, and it’s already gone way too far. That’s why the latest fight to break out in Washington over climate issues needs more attention.

On 1 August, the White House Council on Environmental Quality issued a non-binding suggestion, formally known as “guidance”, to federal agencies to think about climate change when making decisions under a law called the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa). What should have produced a shrug (or, hopefully, a cheer) caused a panic on the right that’s only getting louder.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Sea potatoes wash up en masse on Cornish beach

Marine experts say mysterious orbs found at Long Rock, near Penzance, are species of urchin stirred up from sandy burrows

With their biomechanical, other-worldly appearance, these orbs look like baseballs reprocessed through the imagination of HR Giger. So their appearance en masse on a beach near Penzance this week left locals uneasy.

“I took one home with me, then panicked and put it in the bin in case it attacked,” said one dog walker who found hundreds on the beach at Long Rock, between Penzance and Marazion. His spaniel refused to go near them, he said.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Louisiana faces soaring recovery costs and disease concerns after floods recede

Challenges for state after devastating floods include concerns over mosquito-borne diseases and millions a day in costs as residents start to rebuild their lives

As southern Louisiana sheds the last of the week’s historic floodwater, the region faces significant challenges: how to handle resulting disease, how to pay for the damage and how to prevent it all from happening again.

But as the nation becomes aware of the extent of the damage – 40,000 homes affected and at least 13 people killed – politics have begun to creep into play. Some people have criticized Barack Obama for continuing his golfing vacation as the flood unfolded, while Donald Trump plans to visit the region on Friday, to the consternation of Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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90% of today’s journeys could be covered by electric vehicles

Concerns about the range of electric vehicles (EVs) may be less relevant in today’s context, EVs are potentially already suitable for up to 90% of the trips undertaken in the United States every year, according to new research conducted by a team of researchers at MIT.

Analysis of millions of car trips across the U.S. through survey and GPS data, the research team at MIT found that EVs could make 87% of trips (including the return journey) without needing to charge. Estimates were based upon a model like a Nissan Leaf, currently priced at around $30,000, but the paper argued that continued improvement in battery development could see EVs emerge capable of covering more than 95% of trips by as soon as 2020.

In this re-imagined system, charging would only need to take place at night (or during other inactive hours when parked at home).

The report concluded that the 13% of journeys not covered is enough to still discourage purchasing of EVs today and getting closer to 100% will be essential to increase ownership, as well as adapting transport business models to cover the kinds of travel not possible or inconvenient for electric vehicles.

Source: Electric Vehicles Could Work For Almost 90% Of Car Trips Today

 

 

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Authorities investigate source of 30km oil spill in Darwin harbour

Environmentalists says the spill could be devastating for the harbour’s mangrove and marine ecosystems and those responsible needed to be found

An oil spill covering about 30km across Darwin Harbour is being investigated by Northern Territory authorities.

The oil is believed to be a “heavy, dark fuel oil”, said Dr Bill Freeland, chair of the NT Environmental Protection Authority.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Owners of stranded oil rig say salvage effort is at mercy of weather

Transocean apologises to Isle of Lewis residents and says salvage experts are not ready to refloat the structure

The owners of a 17,000-tonne oil rig that has been stranded on the coast of the Isle of Lewis in Scotland for 10 days have told locals that salvage experts are not ready to refloat the vast structure.

The semi-submersible rig, Transocean Winner, ran aground close to Dalmore beach near Carloway on 8 August. It was being towed from Norway to Malta when its towline snapped in rough seas.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Study identifies key species which act as warning signs of ecosystem collapse

The success or failure of certain species can be used to predict the future health of an entire ecosystem, research says

The Earth’s biodiversity is under attack. We would need to travel back over 65 million years to find rates of species loss as high as we are witnessing today.

Conservation often focuses on the big, enigmatic animals – tigers, polar bears, whales. There are many reasons to want to save these species from extinction. But what about the vast majority of life that we barely notice? The bugs and grubs that can appear or vanish from ecosystems without any apparent impact?

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Source: Guardian Environment

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