@The Convergence of ICT, the Environment, Climate Change, EV and HEV Transportation & Distributed Renewable Energy

Today, on the 1A show I mentioned earlier, someone mused at the idea of stationing data centers in space. So, I was interested when I saw Communications Daily mention it today...

While space sustainability advocates are pressing the FCC to consider the possible environmental impacts of proposed orbital data center mega constellations, policy experts -- including some of those sustainability advocates — said the agency isn’t likely to do so. 

The energy crisis from the war in Iran is one of Southeast Asia’s most pressing concerns, which I am covering closely along with other Associated Press colleagues.

Rising prices of gasoline, diesel and other oil-based fuels due to the conflict are driving ordinary people toward electric vehicles and renewable energies such as solar.

The Iran war, now in its fifth month, dominated conversations among top diplomats at a major meeting last week in Southeast Asia.

Donald Trump has no ideas, but America is ready for a U-turn on climate change.

The news on green technology is surprisingly good. Both development and installation of renewable energy and industry are leaping ahead at rates I would not have thought remotely possible even five years ago. It’s the fastest energy transition in history—and ironically the pace has only accelerated of late thanks to Donald Trump’s madcap war on Iran, which is acting as a de facto carbon tax across the entire planet. Call it Trump’s Green New Deal.

Alas, the progress is coming far too late to head off severe climate disasters. After Canada and the American eastern seaboard were blanketed by another suffocating plume of wildfire smoke in recent weeks, much of Europe is now suffering the same fate. Great swathes of France and Spain are ablaze, with little relief on the horizon. And now weather forecasters are warning that it looks like the most powerful El Niño in recorded history is coming soon.

Climate change is not going to wait for America or any other country to sort out its political dysfunctions. We can confront climate reality or be run over by it.

Between nutrient pollution, climate-fueled severe storms, and warming ocean waters, our estuaries are at risk. But restoring wild oyster habitat could help.

Prysmian's deal with Molex is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the United States as the company expands optical fiber output.

Cable manufacturer Prysmian has secured a 10-year deal worth up to 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) with electronics firm Molex to supply high-density optical fiber for artificial intelligence data centers.

The agreement, announced July 20, includes an upfront payment of 550 million euros. Additionally, it will move Prysmian into the internal data center wiring market to feed surging demand from cloud and AI infrastructure providers, the company says.

To fulfill the deal, the Italian company plans to invest 1.25 billion euros by 2031 to expand its manufacturing footprint, more than doubling its optical fiber output in the United States. The expansion is expected to create 1,000 global jobs, including 600 in the U.S.

Long before synthetic fertilizers, the global guano trade reshaped farming, fueled American expansion and exposed the hidden human costs of feeding the modern world.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-third of the world’s fertilizer normally passes, has made clear that access to nutrients for crops remains as strategically important in the 21st century as access to oil.

As an environmental historian, I study how fertilizer transformed the modern world. That history is about more than scientific innovation or agricultural progress. It also reveals the hidden costs of modern food production, including the brutal treatment of workers and the expansion of imperial power.

Even before the Iran war began, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had disrupted natural gas markets and the global trade in nitrogen fertilizers; sanctions on Belarus had unsettled global markets for potash, one of agriculture’s principal sources of potassium; and China had restricted phosphate exports in an effort to stabilize domestic prices.

In a recent request filed with the FCC, Starlink asked to increase the size of its broadband satellite fleet to 100,000. This coincided with the FCC’s announcement that it wants to ease the process for approving new satellites, so I have to think the idea will sail through. There was one extraordinary statement in this

filing that is the topic of today’s blog. SpaceX said it has the goal of handling the majority of the world’s Internet traffic. Elon Musk has always been one for huge hyperbole, so statements like this are not surprising. I want to examine a few reasons why that goal is ridiculous.

No carrier handles a large percentage of the world’s internet traffic today. According to statistics shown on Cloudflare Radar, the company with the biggest percentage of worldwide traffic today is Amazon, with 3.5% of all traffic. The companies that carry more than 2% of worldwide traffic include Cloudflare (2.2%), Comcast (2.5%), Amazon (2.4%), Microsoft (2.2%), Reliance/Jio (2.1%), and AT&T (2.1%). SpaceX is on the worldwide list at number 18 today, already carrying 0.7% of the world’s Internet traffic. 

As heatwaves make the capital increasingly dangerous, outreach workers warn that vulnerable people face barriers to finding water and cool spaces.

“You’ve just got to bear it. It’s like being in a hot country. It drains you,” said Tom*, a man in his 60s who has been homeless for a number of years. “I haven’t seen weather like this for as long as I’ve been outside.

“I keep to my routines, but you need to find somewhere to sit down and rest. Either some cardboard outside or you find somewhere they’ll let you sit and sleep a bit inside,” he added.

As the UK sweltered through its third heatwave of the year, the Guardian joined outreach workers as they tried to support some of the capital’s most vulnerable people. In his first speech as prime minister last week, Andy Burnham vowed to end rough sleeping in England “at the earliest opportunity”.

President Donald Trump’s administration has admitted in court that it chose to cancel certain grants for clean energy projects because they were set to benefit Democratic-voting states.

The New York Times reported on Friday that attorneys representing the US Department of Energy (DOE) acknowledged in court documents filed earlier this month that decisions about canceling grants were based “solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, i.e., whether the recipient’s location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State.”

Introduction

New York City is at a critical moment in its clean energy transition. Rising electricity demand, aging infrastructure, affordability pressures, and increasingly severe weather are converging as the City works to decarbonize its economy. The first week of July 2026 offered a reminder of why local energy resilience matters. An extended heat wave pushed the electric system under significant strain, prompting localized outages, voltage reductions, and emergency conservation measures as utilities worked to prevent more widespread disruptions.

These events underscore the need for a comprehensive New York City strategy to deploy distributed energy resources (DER). Solar, battery storage, and virtual power plants provide electricity and flexibility closer to where it is consumed, helping reduce peak demand, relieve pressure on local distribution infrastructure, and strengthen neighborhood resilience during periods of extreme heat.

The number of paid robotaxi miles traveled fell 36% in the second quarter, despite expanding to new cities, according to Tesla's own figures.

Tesla’s budding “Robotaxi” network drove fewer miles for paying customers in the second quarter than it did in the first, according to a chart the company released on Wednesday.

The quarter-over-quarter decline runs counter to Tesla’s rhetoric and actions in the past year. Tesla has staked much of its future on the idea of a massive, low-cost, cash-generating Robotaxi fleet — or going “balls to the wall for autonomy,” as CEO Elon Musk framed it in 2024.

You’ve been planning your dream beach vacation for months, only to arrive and find the shoreline covered in large piles of smelly, brown seaweed, with even more floating offshore. It’s disappointing, for sure – and increasingly common.

Since 2011, summer scenes like this have played out on beaches in South Florida and throughout the Caribbean.

The consequences are even greater for people who live and work along the Caribbean and Gulf coasts and the coasts of the tropical Atlantic. Large masses of sargassum seaweed can clog harbors, interfering with fishing and boating, and in some cases harm marine life. As the seaweed begins to decompose it releases gases, including hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and methane, raising concerns for both public health and the environment.

Amid layoffs and industry belt-tightening, quality of coverage, not quantity, becomes even more important.

With advanced nuclear reactors nearing real-world testing in Idaho, it’s happening now. Florida can either wait and watch — or prepare and lead.

Across the country, energy demand is rising. Data centers, advanced manufacturing, population growth, and electrification are all putting new pressure on the grid.

Unfortunately, that has spilled over and is now also putting pressure on your wallet. If Florida wants to lower electricity costs and attract continued investment, the state needs to take the driver’s seat. House Bill 1461 does exactly that. It sets Florida up to lead the nation in energy innovation and, at the same time, help spur continued economic growth.

Amazon Leo revealed more details about a proposed, global direct-to-device (D2D) constellation that, it said, will comprise 5,105 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and complement the D2D satellites it will obtain via its acquisition of Globalstar.

As outlined in an application filed by Kuiper Systems LLC with the FCC on Saturday (July 25), the Amazon Leo D2D system will tap into mobile-satellite service (MSS) spectrum and also tap into various mobile service bands to provide "ubiquitous global coverage."