Peak News and Blog

The $100 billion coffee industry is vulnerable to climate change The $100 billion coffee industry is one of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change. The plants that grow arabica beans thrive in cool regions with distinct rainy and dry seasons. But global warming is causing those regions to shrink. Within the next seven decades,…

EV Startup Backed By UPSA small electric vehicle company backed by UPS wants to replace the assembly lines automakers have used for more than a century with something radically different — small factories employing a few hundred workers. The company, Arrival, is creating highly automated “microfactories” where its delivery vans and buses will be assembled…

Gravity-Based Batteries Try to Beat Their Chemical CousinsAlongside the chilly, steel-gray water of the docks here stands what looks like a naked, four-story elevator shaft—except in place of the elevator is a green, 50-ton iron weight, suspended by steel cables. Little by little, electric motors hoist the weight halfway up the shaft; it is now…

The idea for the first Earth Day was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson, a junior senator from Wisconsin, saw the deteriorating environment in the United States. After his election in to the Senate in 1962, Nelson discovered that Washington had no environmental political agenda despite the many urgent national issues. Nelson believed in the political power…

In the Atlantic Ocean, subtle shifts hint at dramatic dangers ​Our oceans mean life on this planet. Oceans regulate our planet’s temperature and provide oxygen and food. However, we must not take it for granted. A warming atmosphere is causing an arm of the powerful Gulf Stream to weaken. Is this bad? Well, the Gulf…

Plant-rich diets Paring down and replacing that hamburger with meatless meats has multiple benefits. It reduces demand which reduces the associated land clearing, fertilizer use, emissions from burping cattle, and greenhouse gas emissions from animal operations.Shifting to a diet richer in plants is a solution that runs counter to an American diet that includes an average…