One of the unintended consequences of the transportation revolution Silicon Valley is unleashing on city streets is a macabre new array of traffic jams, injuries and even deaths.
The big picture: Cities have been built for personal cars for a century, and they are unprepared to manage the new modes of transportation that are rapidly gaining popularity.
The decisions reached this month by two Indian states, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, to stop building new coal plants align with a renewed call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to end all such construction by 2020.
Why it matters: India's pipeline of planned new coal plants ranks second in size only to China's. These commitments by its state governments come ahead of next week's Climate Summit at the UN General Assembly, where countries will face strong pressure to back off support for expanding coal facilities.
Sweden appears to be the only country in the world, or at least in Europe, where fewer people are flying for environmental reasons, the Telegraph reports.
Why it matters: Flying is a massive contributor to carbon footprints in developed countries, but based on the total number of travelers, air travel has increased this year in 38 of 42 European countries, the Telegraph notes. Drops in air travel in Iceland, Turkey and Bulgaria can be explained by economic or demographic causes, but the same can't be said for Sweden — home of climate activist Greta Thunberg and the "flygskam" (flight shame) movement.
Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, who arrived in the U.S. last month after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a carbon neutral ship, offered a 2018 report on the implications of climate change in lieu of an opening statement in her testimony before 2 congressional committees on Wednesday.
Federal auto safety officials may soon allow you to pick your car's ringtone.
Why it matters: Electric vehicles and hybrids are quiet, which means they can be dangerous to pedestrians, bicyclists and people with vision impairments. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires carmakers to add alert sounds to their quiet models.
The battle between the Trump administration and California over vehicle carbon emissions and mileage is getting hotter.
The latest: Trump announced on Twitter Wednesday that the EPA will revoke California's waiver under the Clean Air Act that enables the state to set CO2 emissions rules that exceed federal standards.
As the scooter-startup wars continue to heat up across the U.S., San Francisco-based Skip claims its slow-and-steady approach has allowed it to perfect its warehouse operations and the design of its newest vehicle, the first scooter it has not purchased off-the-shelf from other vendors.
The intrigue: By some measures, the company is well behind its biggest rivals like Bird and Lime, which operate in dozens of cities while Skip is only in two, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The current U.S. Highway Code does not have a single performance measure that focuses on the reduction of greenhouse gases or vehicle miles traveled, but a new bill in Congress aims to establish a connection and incentivize reductions.
Why it matters: Transportation contributes 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Driving represents 83% of trips, and the number of miles driven is rising, posing a serious problem to curbing emissions.
Hurricane Humberto was packing sustained winds of 115 mph as the Category 3 storm 330 miles west of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday.
The latest: While Humberto is set to bring strong winds to the British island territory, forecasters expect the hurricane's center to pass just to the northwest of Bermuda Wednesday night.
