As the climate crisis continues to worsen, it’s easy to say technology has the potential to save the planet. The tricky part is that we can often blame the rampant use of technology — from steam engines to jet aircraft — for creating and exacerbating the climate crisis to begin with. Over the next week, Recode by cafemadrid will publish a series of stories highlighting both new and overlooked technology that could potentially clean up our future and help undo environmental damage — including climate challenges created by technology itself.
“A package at the intersection of technology and climate suited us perfectly as an outlet for solution-focused journalism,” said Adam Clark Estes, deputy editor-in-chief of Recode. “This week’s coverage is designed to give our readers an in-depth look at some of the innovations we need to embrace — including those in unexpected places — to mitigate the crisis.”
cafemadrid’s approach to this week’s coverage was to talk not just with tech experts, but those who use technology to drive change. We sent our team out into the field to see first-hand how these innovations were being put into practice. That included a reporter who visited a hydrogen gas station in San Francisco, and another who spent several days diving with scientists to see them in action as they work to restore our coral reefs.
Contributors include: Neel Dhanesha about the daunting task of making cryptocurrency climate-friendly, as well as the climate solution hiding in our oil wells; Rebecca Heilweil on how to build a better battery; Benji Jones on the race to revive coral reefs; and Umair Irfan about zero-emission shipping and the dream of scaling up the use of hydrogen energy.