Dongying, China From smog-choked cities to sludge-filled rivers, stories about China’s environment in recent years have painted a bleak picture. But China is not the…
The Race to Zero Emissions
Most climate-change stories are doom and gloom. Not the ones in this series. The world has committed to keeping global temperature rise below the dangerous 2°C threshold, which requires reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to zero. Around the world, businesses small and large believe there’s money to be made in the race. This series investigates how the revival of left-for-dead carbon-capture technology could save humanity.
SAVE THE WORLD
Interactive: Can you get carbon emissions under control?
Who said understanding climate change has to be boring? We’ve created a game that could make it fun. Here are the rules: It’s clear we…
QZ&A
The compelling case for capturing carbon emissions and burying them underground
Livermore, California Over my year of reporting on carbon-capture technology, I made it a habit to ask everyone I interviewed to suggest three others I…
A RESILIENT WORLD
An innovative natural-gas power plant could be the future of hurricane-proof electricity
Bridgeport, Connecticut The US electricity grid is built to deal with rain, snow, winds, and lightning. But it couldn’t handle Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Across…
POWER TO GAS
Batteries can’t solve the world’s biggest energy-storage problem. One startup has a solution.
Copenhagen, Denmark Sometimes, there can be too much of a good thing. Every so often, from California to Germany, there’s news of “negative electricity prices,”…
CHASING CARBON
The teenager inventor who could change the way the world fights climate change
Greenwich, Connecticut Ethan Novek speaks fast and insists on giving you every detail, even in response to simple questions. It can be overwhelming. But it’s…
UNREFINED
Rich countries are reducing their emissions—by exporting them to China
Historical greenhouse-gas emissions data make clear that much of the burden of climate change lies with rich countries. The US, the UK, Germany, and others…
CONCRETE THOUGHTS
The material that built the modern world is also destroying it. Here’s a fix
Piscataway, New Jersey Remarkably, the material that built the first modern civilization remains key to building today’s global economy. The cement we use in 2017…
TURBINE REDESIGN
A radical startup has invented the world’s first zero-emissions fossil-fuel power plant
Houston, Texas From the top of the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge, more than 50 meters (160 ft) above Buffalo Bayou, in every direction you…
RATIONAL CHOICE
Humanity’s fight against climate change is failing. One technology can change that.
Iceland is cold. But it sits atop one of the world’s hottest underground regions, giving the country the ability to tap into a massive store…
SUCK IT UP
The world’s first “negative emissions” plant has begun operation—turning carbon dioxide into stone
There’s a colorless, odorless, and largely benign gas that humanity just can’t get enough of. We produce 40 trillion kg of carbon dioxide each year,…
GREEN GOO
The revolutionary technology pushing Sweden toward the seemingly impossible goal of zero emissions
Degerhamn, Sweden As far as the eye can see, the only thing polluting our pristine environment is the gas-guzzling car I’m riding in. It’s a…
