Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, has completed a plan to drastically reduce its carbon emissions through a software upgrade known as “the merge”. Here we explain what has changed and what the implications might be.
However you feel about it, there’s no doubt that 2021 was crypto’s year, and not just because Elon Musk made Dogecoin jokes on SNL. If you learned what the blockchain is for the first time over the last 12 months, it was very likely because of NFTs.
The company’s stock market arrival establishes Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the traditional financial landscape. It also elevates a technology with astonishing environmental costs.
The worldwide push to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require advances in green technologies—particularly tech associated with renewable energy—but simply waiting for future tools to emerge isn't a viable solution to climate change.
Pilot projects that use innovative data collection to encourage recycling and responsible waste management are underway in Argentina, India and the U.S.
