Green

In 2022, the gas crisis skyrocketed the price of electricity in Spain. In 2026 we have a “green shield” but also a serious problem

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Just when in Spain we began to breathe a sigh of relief, convinced that we had overcome the inflationary trauma of 2022 “after cutting energy ties” with Russia, history repeats itself. This week a “black Monday” began that has shaken international markets. This time the epicenter is not in eastern Europe, but in the Persian Gulf, after the recent attacks that have been forced to paralyze QatarEnergy facilities. The impact on our country has been devastating. According to data collected in OMIEthe price of electricity in the wholesale market has jumped 60% in just 24 hours, climbing to 90.14 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). To put it in perspective, this represents a 1,300% increase in price compared to what we paid just a month ago. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already warned that We must prepare for a “long war” with serious global economic consequences. And the fear is already palpable in the street with the long lines that yesterday we observed of drivers trying to fill their tank at gas stations low cost before prices continue to rise. If the gas goes up, why does the electricity go up? To understand why a conflict thousands of kilometers away makes our electricity more expensive almost instantly, you have to look at how our system works. As explained The Confidential in a very didactic way: the European electricity market is “marginalist”. This means that the most expensive technology that needs to be used to cover the demand of a specific day is the one that sets the final price of all energy. If the sun or wind is not enough and the gas plants have to be turned on, all electricity is paid for at the price of gas. And the gas, right now, is trapped in a war funnel. As we have already explained these days20% of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 25% of the world’s oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz (the epicenter of the current tension). Any threat of a blockade in that area generates a domino effect that triggers reference prices in Europe. The energy expert Joaquín Coronado explained in LinkedIn that this panic is already real: The prices of electricity futures for the rest of 2026 have suddenly risen by 24%. As he himself points out, “only the price of gas has changed,” but that is enough to drag down the entire system. The hit in the pocket. All this macroeconomics lands directly in the bank account of citizens. As pointed out The Countrythere are more than 11 million users in Spain who have regulated rates (the PVPC for electricity and the TUR for gas) who will notice this increase almost immediately, since their contracts reflect the daily fluctuations of the market. The calculations about what this crisis is going to cost us are already on the table: The OCU, in statements to The Newspaperestimates that if these prices are maintained, the average electricity bill with a regulated rate will jump from the 62 euros we paid in February to around 82 euros in March. An increase of 30% in a single month. A platform report Roams figures the monthly impact about 12 euros extra for electricity (17% more) and increases of up to 18% on the gas bill. The worst scenario is drawn the comparator Selectra: If the conflict drags on and we return to the panic levels of 2022, the electricity bill could skyrocket by 200%. But energy is just the first domino. Financial Times collect warnings from the chief economist of the European Central Bank (ECB), who already assumes a short-term rebound in general inflation. As oil rises, transportation rises: from fuel at the pump (gas stations already assume extra costs of 12 cents per liter) to maritime freight of goods and plane tickets, which on some routes to Asia have quadrupled in price. So, are we the same as in 2022? The good news is that we are not exactly at the same starting point as when the Ukrainian war broke out. As analyzed elDiario.esSpain today has three “mattresses” that cushion the first impact: the arrival of spring (which reduces the use of heating), some reservoirs 83% full (which allow generate a lot of hydroelectric energy cheap) and an electric mix where more than 50% of energy is already renewable. Furthermore, the PVPC formula was recently renovated so that it does not depend only on the daily market, softening the extreme peaks a little. The bad news is that we have exchanged one problem for another. To stop depending on Russia, we throw ourselves into the arms of the United States. As the economist José Carlos Díez warns in the chain Vibe Zero44% of the gas we consume today comes from the US. This places us in a position of extreme vulnerability to the new geopolitical “black swan”: the anger of Donald Trump. The refusal of the Spanish Government to give up the military bases of Rota and Morón for the offensive against Iran has caused Trump to threaten to cut off all trade with Spain. If the United States turns off the tap on LNG ships, José Carlos Díez warnsSpain does not have the physical capacity or infrastructure to replace a supplier that gives us almost half of our gas from one day to the next. The social shield and our pending duties. Faced with the threat of the crisis becoming entrenched, the Government is already moving. According to Expansion, If the conflict lasts more than four weeks, Pedro Sánchez’s Executive has on the table reactivating the “social shield” of previous crises: reductions in VAT on electricity, fuel discounts and direct aid. However, fiscal patches do not hide the underlying problems. In Xataka We have put our finger on two great absurdities of our system. On the one hand, we are an “energy island” since we have seven regasification plants capable of receiving ships from all over the world and helping Europe, but we do … Read more

The country that opted most for green now embraces the one made with gas

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Just a couple of years ago, the atmosphere in German energy policy was one of pure euphoria. The small town of Bremervörde (Lower Saxony) had just opened the first train route operated solely on hydrogen. With an estimated saving of 4,000 tons of CO2 per year, the project was the perfect showcase for the Government’s great plan: relying the entire weight of its decarbonization on the purity of green hydrogen However, time has cooled enthusiasm and the current hydrogen landscape in Germany faces harsh economic realities. Refueling stations for hydrogen cars languish; in fact, H2 Mobility, the country’s main operator, announced the closure of several of its stations due to the lack of demand in passenger vehicles and constant supply bottlenecks. This face-to-face collision with reality has forced a drastic political turn: Germany, the country that most opted for the purity of green hydrogen, is modifying its laws to embrace “blue” hydrogen, that which is produced from natural gas using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Urgency changes the rules. The fractions of the government coalition (Union and SPD) have agreed to amend the Hydrogen Acceleration Law so that the production of blue hydrogen now enjoys the status of “overriding public interest”. Originally, this regulation sought to streamline bureaucracy only for 100% renewable projects, but the new draft expands its scope of application. As the specialized publication points out Tagesspiegel Backgroundthis change equates at the permit level the facilities that extract hydrogen from fossil gas (capturing CO2) with those that use wind or solar energy. This shift towards natural gas raises an obvious question for a country that has just gone through a severe energy crisis: where will the raw material come from now that the Russian tap is closed? The answer look north. Gas from the Barents Sea, of Nordic and Norwegian origin, is emerging as the ideal geopolitical lifeline to fuel this new European blue hydrogen machinery, guaranteeing industrial supply without falling into dependence on Moscow. A devastating wake-up call. This political shift does not come out of nowhere, but comes after a devastating report from the German Federal Court of Auditors (Bundesrechnungshof). According to this supervisory bodydespite the billions of euros injected in subsidies, the government is flagrantly failing to meet the objectives of its own strategy, as neither supply nor demand are growing as planned. Kay Scheller, president of the Court, publicly demanded a “reality check”, warning that, if it is not assumed that green hydrogen will not be competitive in price in the short term, federal finances will collapse under the weight of subsidies. The energy transition simply cannot wait for green hydrogen to be technically and economically viable on a large scale. The central problem is the cost. While natural gas (including CO2 emission rights) is between 43 and 67 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), the forecasts for imported hydrogen in 2030 rise to a range of between 137 and 318 euros per MWh. This abysmal price difference — which can reach 275 euros per MWh — makes it unfeasible for companies to make the change in the short term. Train crash. The business sector has breathed a sigh of relief. As explained in another article by Tagesspiegel Backgroundkey entities such as the Association of German Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) had been demanding this pragmatic step for some time. They argue that the transformation of heavy industry cannot sit idly by waiting for there to be enough wind and solar farms to flood the market with green hydrogen at affordable prices. On the contrary, environmental organizations They denounce that this movement It is a serious setback that will only consolidate and perpetuate the dependence of the largest European economy on fossil fuels. To unclog the sector, the Minister of Economy, Katherina Reiche, promised a few months ago simplify procedures “from the ground up”, recognizing that current processes are too slow. The declaration of “overriding public interest” will function as an administrative fast track that will cover not only production, but vital infrastructures as maritime import terminals and Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC). The risk of the “white elephant” and the fiscal hole. But legislative flexibility may not be enough to cover the enormous financial hole that is looming. The specialized portal CleanTechnica goes deeper, warning of the severe danger of “sunk costs”. Building and pressurizing pipelines without assured customers turns a theoretical infrastructure into an active spending sink. The Court of Auditors supports this thesis and warns of a serious synchronization problem: Germany has planned a huge 9,040-kilometre pipeline “core network”, but it is being built for a demand that today is a mirage. Large steel projects that were going to consume 18 TWh annually are faltering; of the four main ones, one has already been canceled and the rest face uncertain deadlines. The financing mechanism of this network is based on future users paying tolls to repay a state loan from the KfW development bank of up to 24 billion euros. If demand does not materialize and the pipelines remain empty, the mechanism will fail miserably, leaving German taxpayers exposed to losses exceeding €18 billion. The “Plan B” of the European locomotive The utopia of a Germany driven exclusively by green molecules has collided head-on with State accounting and the non-negotiable deadlines of heavy industry. Faced with the imminent risk of losing competitiveness and generating a fiscal crisis, the government has been forced to sacrifice the purity of its initial ecological ambitions. The country has understood that it needs an urgent “Plan B.” That Buxtehude train that in 2022 promised an idyllic future powered only by the wind and the sun, will have to share the track, at least for the next few decades, with the pragmatism of natural gas. At this crossroads, blue hydrogen has ceased to be the “dirty brother” and undesirable and has become the indispensable temporary lifeline of one of the great European economies. Image | freepik 1 and … Read more

you will never see a green star

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There will be those who are too lazy to walk the dog at night (especially in winter) or at 6:30 in the morning, but I love finding it all asleep and being able to calmly raise my head so that, while I walk around the outskirts of my city so that my dogs can do their things, look at the sky to see what I find. One of my hobbies is, like when I was little, trying to distinguish what I find: The Polar Star, at this time of year also El Carro, the very bright Sirius with a bluish white or orange tone Aldebaranthe red Betelgeuse or the blue supergiant Rigel. Although there is light pollutionFortunately, I live near several municipalities starlight and it doesn’t take much to find authentic shows. I have seen stars of a few colors, but never green. The reality is that I look at the stars with no other instrument than my eyes and that implies only see those bright enough to emit enough light to activate the conesthe color-sensitive cells that are in the retina. But still, the stars I encounter seem white, blue, red, orange or yellow. Viewing the sky with a telescope things change and there you can see fainter stars or even go up a level and take a look (and try to interpret what space telescopes see). What is hard to see are green stars. Spoiler: it is as much a matter of the stars as it is of our eyes and their way of perceiving color. The Sun’s peak emission is green. There are several reasons why we never see it that color. A star behaves like a black bodythat is, it emits light depending on its temperature. Simply put: they emit light because they are hot. In fact, their color depends on their temperature: the coldest ones emit red light and those that are very hot glow blue. Different Planck curves for stars of classic colors: blue, yellow, red. POT However, this is a simplification: they actually emit in a wide range of colors but in different proportions in an asymmetrical bell shape (the Planck curve that you see above these lines) and it is the mixture that gives that final color. The relationship between the temperature of a star and the color where it emits the greatest amount of energy (the tip of the curve) is obtained from the Wien Displacement Law. If a star has a temperature of about 5,500K (very similar to that of the Sun), its peak emission would be precisely in that green zone. But we have never seen the sun be green. Here our eyes come into play: the color of a star is not an intrinsic property of light, but rather an interpretation of our eyes against that jumble of photons. The eyes have three types of coneseach of them sensitive to red, green or blue light respectively. That is, if an object emits or reflects red light, only the red cones would send a signal to the brain to perceive it that way. Obviously the brain can interpret more colors: the key is that these three types of cones can send the signal in different proportions and then they are mixed in the brain. Precisely what happens with the Sun, which although it emits the greatest amount of light in blue and green, simultaneously emits so much red and blue light that the combination ends up averaging in the brain as white (another thing is that is classified like a yellow dwarf star. Due to the physics of black bodies, there is no stellar temperature that excites only the green cones of the eye without also activating the red and blue cones. And since cameras imitate the vision of the eyes, the stars do not appear green in the photos either. Yes, but. After all this explanation it turns out that there are a couple of stars that some people claim to see green, but no: in reality They are brain tricks. It is the case of Almacha star system formed by a giant, bright orange star and a triple system of three blue stars so close that from our perspective they cannot be distinguished separately, but rather blend into a point of light. Our brain tries to balance orange with its complementary color, green. The result: we can perceive it as orange. Of course, the cameras do not take issue with this biological processing error. The other is Zubeneschamalia solitary star whose color we confuse either by subjective perception or by effects of the atmosphere. That doesn’t mean there aren’t green celestial objects in the sky. There are a few nebulae with a very striking green tone thanks to the intense emission of oxygen atoms, we have also seen emerald green comets (the blame lies with diatomic carbon) or planets like Earth for obvious reasons and even Uranus because of the methane in its atmosphere and how it absorbs light. In Xataka | We thought that the red color in a galaxy told us that it was dead. There are those who believe that we are wrong In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | Parastoo Maleki

China has given the green light to buy NVIDIA chips. The problem for your companies is that you will closely monitor each operation

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NVIDIA has hundreds of thousands of H200 chips trapped in limbo. It is one of the company’s most powerful chips and the standard of the companies that are training AI. It is preferred for train the modelsand also the weapon with which The United States sought to leave China out of the game. After movements by the two countries, The US finally approved (25% commission through) that NVIDIA could sell the H200 to Chinese companies. China has taken some time, but finally it seems that it will accept the offer reluctantly and with an ace up its sleeve: DeepSeek. The mess. The H200 issue is a soap opera. In the context of the trade and technology warthe United States played one of the best cards they had: preventing one of their most powerful products from reaching Chinese hands. They also hindered European companies like ASML from selling their most advanced machinery for making semiconductors to companies like Huawei or SMIC. China responded, of course. He attacked with rare earth -that control almost exclusively– and has been showing little by little that they can not only create advanced semiconductors on your own (and pushing old technology to the limit), but they are alive and well in the battle for artificial intelligence. Furthermore, they have developed a robotics industry and other aerospace practically out of nowhere, making a vacuum to Western chips, and that has caught the United States on the wrong foot. China makes a move. Seeing that China was advancing and the US was not getting a cent, they moved tab: They opened the door for NVIDIA to sell its H200s to certain Chinese customers. For each sale, the US took 25%, but it seems that it was something that the Chinese Big-Tech wanted to take on because they need, at least currently, that NVIDIA technology. And the GPU company itself increased production expecting two million orders above normal. The problem is that everything moved very quickly. without China, really, having said anything. Because here it is not just a question of whether the United States lets it sell, but whether China wants its companies to buy. In a tense calm that left requests halted and thousands of H200 in limbo, China has finally made a move. According to Reuters, and as we told a few days agothere are companies that will be able to place orders for the H200. There is a “but”. It is not carte blanche for anyone to place an order. According to WSJ, Chinese authorities have indicated that each purchase must be for a use considered “necessary.” That includes advanced research or development in AI. Because two factors come into play here: On the one hand, it seems that there are Chinese companies that are pressuring the Government to let them access the technology. NVIDIA was allowed to sell the H20 to Chinese customers, but if these customers can now buy the H200 – six times more capable – they want to take advantage of it. But China does not want everyone to throw themselves into the arms of NVIDIA because, precisely, they have been building their own semiconductor industry for five years with SMIC and Huawei in the lead. China’s goal is to stop depending on the US, and if everyone starts buying US chips like crazy, they will not advance on the technological roadmap that the country marked a long time ago. That is to say, it seems that Chinese regulators are going to evaluate which companies can or cannot buy the H200 depending on the use they want to give it. It has been reported that, for example, ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent will be able to import 400,000 H200 chips. But there is a twist to all this. deepseek. China’s quintessential artificial intelligence model is one that has turned both NVIDIA and the United States upside down. The question was how it was possible that, without access to the latest technology, DeepSeek could optimize its AI so much. On the one hand, ingenuity to circumvent the CUDA standard. On the other hand, there are those who are clear that DeepSeek has been trained with NVIDIA cards… smuggled. Accusations of smuggling are nothing new in this commercial and technological war, but precisely, and according to Reutersthe company that joins NVIDIA’s massive H200 order along with ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent is… DeepSeek. Officially, and without restrictions, they will be able to access the H200. “We have given China the argument to launch its own industry and, at the same time, we are giving them access to ours again” – Samuel Bresnick Whiplash. I really liked this concept that Wired uses to define American policy in this regard. They are the ones who started the conflict and their position has been pivoting about tariffsbut with more or less lax measures depending on the moment. It seems clear that, now, they are at a point where they have had to think “if China is going to somehow reach the technology, at least we sell it and earn something along the way.” Samuel Bresnick is a researcher at the Georgetown Center for Security and Technology and comments in Wired that the worst thing you can do is “come and go,” noting that “we have given China the argument to launch its own industry and, at the same time, we once again give them access to ours.” Get your batteries. And meanwhile, there’s Jensen Huang. The CEO of NVIDIA has taken a mass bath in recent days in both China and Taiwan, where he has met with some of the companies that move the semiconductor sector. NVIDIA sat at the same table, TSMCFoxconn or Asus, and Huang came out, half joking, half seriouswith one request: you need wafers and RAM. Regarding the purchase of the H200, China is walking on eggshells, and it makes perfect sense. It is at a point where it does not want to be left behind, and to do so it needs its … Read more

has the green light to deploy 7,500 additional satellites

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Rarely has a technological infrastructure grown so quickly and so out of the everyday radar. While for almost everyone the sky remains as usual, thousands of Starlink satellites are already moving in low Earth orbit, building a network designed to bring connection to almost any point on the planet. In just a few years, SpaceX has gone from a first experimental launch to becoming the world’s largest satellite operator, and that buildup of hardware in space presents opportunities, but also annoyances in parts of the scientific sector. The most recent movement comes in a context of criticism from the astronomical community for the impact of these constellations on sky observation. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized SpaceX to deploy another 7,500 Starlink second-generation satellites, bringing the total authorized Gen2 satellites to 15,000. The organization not only gave the green light to this expansion, but also allowed technical improvements and a more flexible use of frequencies and coverage, in a decision that seeks to facilitate advanced mobile services and connections up to 1 gigabit per second. The authorization, in detail. The FCC has given SpaceX room to redesign and squeeze its constellation. The permit includes the update of the second generation Starlink with new form factors and advanced technology, the joint use of the Ku, Ka, V, E and W bands, and the possibility of providing both fixed and mobile services from space. Added to this is the elimination of limits that blocked beam overlap and the creation of new orbital layers between 340 and 485 kilometers, which the FCC itself presents as a way to optimize coverage and performance. In May 2019, Elon Musk announced the launch of the first batch of Starlink satellites The permit, however, does not cover everything SpaceX had requested. The company requested authorization to deploy nearly 30,000 second-generation satellites, but the regulator has decided to stay at half for now. In its resolution, the FCC emphasizes that part of these Starlink Gen2 has not yet been tested in orbit and that there remain doubts about operations at higher altitudes, above 600 kilometers, which explains why the decision on the remaining 14,988 satellites has been postponed, according to Reuters. The clock starts ticking. The FCC approval is not indefinite. SpaceX will have to prove concrete advances in the coming years, with at least half of the authorized constellation operating in their assigned orbits before December 1, 2028 and the rest before December 2031. In addition, the regulator forces the deployment of the first generation to close before November 2027, while the company prepares a reconfiguration for 2026 that will lower thousands of satellites to a lower orbit to reduce risks. Versions of Starlink satellites Expansion is not justified only by more bandwidth. Part of the constellation is intended to enable direct mobile connectivity in regions outside the United States and also strengthen coverage within the country, which would allow mobile services and data in areas without land towers at high speed. It is the same approach that already supports Starlink’s agreements with T-Mobile and with several international operators aimed at converting the satellite into an extension of the cellular network. The cost of filling the orbit. Now massive satellites are not without criticism. Astronomers They have been warning for years that constellations like Starlink generate trails in optical images and “noise” in radio telescopes, to the point that the International Astronomical Union created a specific center to protect the “dark and silent sky.” Added to this is the fear of orbital saturation and the risk of collisions, a debate that has been revived after recent incidents. Images | Mark Handley | SpaceX In Xataka | China has taken a silent step in the new space race: the world’s first system to measure time on the Moon

China gives the green light to the first level 3 autonomous cars. Their goal: to be leaders in 2035

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China has given the green light to its first two passenger vehicles with capacity level 3 autonomous driving (L3). This will allow drivers to let go of the steering wheel in certain circumstances. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced this Monday that Changan Automobile and BAIC have received authorization to manufacture electric cars with this technology, although with geographical and speed limitations. What level 3 really means. Most current driving assistance systems in smart cars are classified as L2 or L2+, which force the driver to keep their hands on the wheel at all times. Level 3, considered “hands-off” according to the criteria of the international organization SAE, allows the vehicle to assume all dynamic driving tasks under specific conditions. However, the driver must remain alert and prepared to intervene when necessary. To put ourselves in context, level 5 would represent total autonomy, without the need for human intervention under any circumstances. The restrictions of the approved models. The model from Changan, a state-owned manufacturer based in Chongqing, will be able to navigate autonomously through urban streets and traffic at a maximum speed of 50 km/h when its assistance system is activated. For its part, the BAIC model under its Arcfox brand (the Alpha S sedan) is authorized to travel on highways and expressways at up to 80 km/h. Both vehicles, which are pure electric, will only be able to operate in specific areas: the Changan Deepal SL03 will be able to do so in certain sections of Chongqing, while the Arcfox Alpha S in specific sections of highways in Beijing that connect with the airports. Why China is accelerating now. The country is treating autonomous driving as another strategic objective, just as it did when promoting its electric vehicle industry, which is so popular abroad. The authorities have set the goal of making the country a leader in the sector by 2035. According to Zhang Yongweigeneral secretary of China EV100, two out of every three new cars sold in China this year will have Level 2 or higher autonomous driving capability. “The approvals show that the authorities are willing to deregulate the market,” says Phate Zhang, founder of CnEVPost, who anticipates that “officials are likely to take a phased approach to distributing more manufacturing licenses to other manufacturers.” The industry was already prepared. According to SCMP, several premium manufacturers have been with models ready to comply with level 3 regulations for months. Geely’s Zeekr and Seres, backed by Huawei Technologies, have designed and developed intelligent vehicles considered semi-autonomous that would comply with L3 rules, according to previous announcements. Andrew Fan, CFO of Hesai Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of lidar sensors, declared reported last month that “preparations were well underway in the Chinese auto industry for the next generation of autonomous driving capabilities, even before Beijing cleared the regulatory path.” The cost of the advanced lidar sensors needed for Level 3 ranges from $500 to $1,000 per unit, with demand rising as major Chinese manufacturers accelerate development of autonomous vehicles. Where is China compared to the West. Mercedes-Benz seems to have the advantage in this area: its Level 3 Drive Pilot system was approved by German authorities at the beginning of the year to operate at speeds of up to 95 km/h on the motorway network, marking the fastest certified system for conditional autonomous driving in a production vehicle, according to the company. Tesla continues to update its Full Self Driving system, which operates at an advanced level 2. Meanwhile, manufacturers like BMW and BYD also have models in testing for Level 3 driver assistance in Chinese cities like Beijing. What’s coming now. The MIIT has confirmed which will work with other authorities to supervise these vehicles while promoting the development of this technology in China. The two manufacturers will use the models to carry out pilot programs in assigned locations. Although the ministry has not specified when they will hit the market, technically manufacturers can begin assembling the models once they receive the green light. In addition to these two state-owned manufacturers, several robotaxis companies such as Baidu’s Apollo Go, Pony AI and WeRide They are already leading the deployment of driverless vehicles worldwide, operating at level 4, which does not require a human driver. Cover image | Wikipedia In Xataka | For the first time in 88 years, Volkswagen has crossed a red line: closing a factory in Germany

China has been building the Great Green Wall for 50 years. What I had not planned was to alter the rains

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The China’s forests are growing. It has nothing to do with a natural process, but with a meticulously followed strategy to contain the desert expansion and reforest the country with billions of trees. The consequence of this reforestation is not limited to having more trees and two studies have just shown the counterpart of massive ecological engineering. This is not good news: the continental hydrological cycle is being altered. The Green Wall. Of China’s deserts, the Gobi may be the best known, but the Taklamakan It is one of the most problematic. 85% of this 337,600 km² desert are dunes, which at certain times of the year generates sand storms that leave the surrounding towns without crops. And countries like the two Koreas or Japan too they suffered the effects of storms. Furthermore, it was growing, so in 1978, the country launched march the Refugio Tres Norte Forest Program. The strategy: a series of tree belts to contain the expansion of its largest deserts. The objective: to go from forest cover in the country of 5.05% in 1997 to almost 15%, and the idea is complete that belt by 2050 with a total of 4,500 kilometers long. At the moment, the Great Green Wall has completed the shield around Taklamakan with a belt of about 3,000 km, observing a decrease in sandstorms. Consequences in water. Apart from that desert, in others such as Ulanbuh, Korqin, Hunshandake, Maowusu and Kubuqi, tens of thousands of square kilometers of forest and pasture have been built. And, although the storms have decreased, different investigations are noticing a secondary effect: an alteration of the water cycle throughout the continent. Published in Earth’s Future, a study carried out by Chinese researchers shows how new vegetation has increased evapotranspiration in the region. Bottom line: More water is being pumped from the ground into the atmosphere, meaning winds are transporting water to regions like the Tibetan Plateau as rain while the monsoon regions of the northwest and east are suffering a decrease in its net water availability. Non-uniform redistribution. This greater green cover causes restored forests and grasslands to transpire more water than bare soil or traditional crops. This additional moisture It enters the atmosphere, which falls in other regions as rain. According to the study, the consequences at the national level were the following: Evapotranspiration increased by 1.71 mm/year. Precipitation also increased by 1.24 mm/year. Water availability (from aquifers and springs, for example) decreased by 0.46 mm/year. And, as we say, the process is not uniform because the water is moving from one area to another. Greening/conserving water. It is not the only study published on the subject, but it is one that coincides in time with another published in August of this year in which, after analyzing 1,046 hydrological stations and their data from the last 60 years, they discovered that the flow of the rivers decreased by more than 70%. Their conclusion is that it is not an effect of climate change, but of changes in the landscape caused by human intervention. It makes perfect sense: trees need water to grow, and that amount of new trees makes them act like a giant pump, reducing the amount of water that feeds the rivers. Thus, there is a tension between greening China and conserving its water, since once in the clouds, it precipitates air currents wherever you go. Implications. In the end, the researchers conclude that the strategy when managing water must be changed and that hydrographic plans must take into account both the land basins and the “air basin”, anticipating where the water evaporated by the forests will travel. Because the ambitious reforestation plan has 24 years left and the country has invested a lot in it directly – by planting trees – but also with policies that prohibit the felling of forests or with incentives for farmers to convert their croplands into pastures. And, well, the consequences not only have to do with water. That the Natural Forest Protection Program prohibited logging in primary forests provoked that Chinese loggers would ‘loot’ the Burmese forests. Something that adds to the conflict between both nations. Images | Siggy Nowak, Janwillemvanaalst, Kanenori In Xataka | In China they already have room for the first city with a vertical forest: a million plants and trees

Japan is the only country in the world where the green traffic lights are blue. And the reason is called “aoshingō”

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Red, amber and green. The three colors of traffic lights around the world. All over the world? No, some particular Japanese traffic lights resist today and forever… the Vienna Convention on Traffic Signs and Signals to which more than 50 States are adhered. Although there are curious absences in it, such as those of the United States or, of course, Japan. This regulatory framework was signed for the first time in 1968promoted by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The text reviewed previous regulations with the aim of homogenizing traffic in as many countries as possible. The last review, in fact, is from 2003 and it addressed the modernization of some signs or the priority rules on roundabouts. The intention is that what we understand in Spain as a Stop is also the same in France or Germany. And so it is, in fact, because all of Europe subscribes to said text. But the most striking absences, such as that of Japan, give rise to curious anecdotes. Like finding traffic lights where the priority of passage is not granted with green, it is applied when the light turns blue. Blue, I love you blue And if you travel to Japan and plan to drive, there is one detail that you should not overlook (beyond the fact that you drive on the left, remember): the green light on some traffic lights is blue. Or turquoise, more accurately. The origin must be found in the language itself. The Japanese did not have a specific word to refer to green. To mention it they referred to the word “Ao”. The problem is that “Ao” It refers to a wide spectrum of colors and among them, as you can imagine, blue or greenish blue or turquoise. Some sources suggest that the word “Midori”, which refers specifically to the color green, became popular during World War II for a purely practical matter when it comes to differentiating both colors. However, a good part of society continued to refer to green as “Ao” and, in fact, it continues to be part of words that are applied exclusively to define green objects, such as aoshingō…which is actually the official word for the green traffic light even though it doesn’t specifically mean green. In 1960, Japan signed its own Traffic Law where this term was collected to talk about the traffic light. This law is, therefore, prior to the aforementioned Vienna Convention and remained intact until 1973 when a ministerial order ended up specifying that the traffic light It had to be as blue as possible within the greenas a compromise measure between maintaining the traffic lights that were already installed and approaching international conventions. The result is that the oldest traffic lights have a more intense blue and the most modern ones have a green tone with slight blue nuances that can remind us of turquoise. However, they are not exactly green because the term “Ao” works, as we said, for both blue and green. Photo | Yuya Sekiguchi and Derch In Xataka | Japan needs solutions to its great demographic drama. He is looking for them on a bus

On this island in Japan there is a traffic light that only turns green once a year, and not precisely to control traffic

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On the small Japanese island of Himakajima there is a traffic light which remains flashing amber or red all year round. Only during one day in May does it change its usual behavior and activate its green light (or blue, as they insist in Japan). This is not a fault. It was designed this way for a reason that goes beyond traffic control. An educational traffic light. The traffic light was installed in 1994 at the Himakajima East Port intersection, but not to regulate traffic. The island barely has 2,000 inhabitants and few vehicles circulate on its roads. The traffic light exists solely to teach children of the place how the urban signals work before they leave the island for larger cities. One less problem. According to explains the Himaka Road Safety Association, which promoted its installation, minors grew up without real experience with traffic lights. Before, they used small models in traffic safety classes, but the children themselves asked “what does a real traffic light look like?” account Kazuo Sugiura, former president of the association, to the local media Asahi. One day a year to learn. Every May, the traffic light is activated for a full day. Third and fifth grade students from the local school go to the crossing accompanied by teachers, parents and authorities. There they practice how to cross correctly: they wait for the color to change, look both ways and cross the zebra crossing with their arm raised, just as they would in any city in Japan. More difficult than expected. The children also discover that calculating the time they have to cross the pass is not as simple as it seems. “It was complicated because it turned red when I was trying to cross,” explained a third-grade student after practicing with her bicycle. The exercise helps them understand the real times of light change and develop security reflexes that they cannot acquire in their daily life on the island. An unexpected tourist curiosity. This little anecdote has gained notoriety beyond Japan. Every year videos and photos circulate on social networks showing the peculiar educational ritual. Some users even consult the local government website to find out the exact date of “green day” and witness the event, although it varies slightly each season. It is already part of the island’s identity. Once the annual training is completed, the traffic light returns to its flashing lights routine. It does not serve any practical function in traffic control, but it has ended up becoming a small symbol of how the community of this island prepares its children for the urban world. The rest of the year, Himakajima remains a quiet place known for its beaches and octopus dishes, with a traffic light that counts down the days until it can turn green again. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | Convenience stores were an emblem of Japan. Until the demographic crisis has revealed the dark side of opening 24 hours

There are green, orange and even purple USB ports. The color rule that indicates your generation is extinct

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There was a time when everything was easier. If the USB port was white, it was slow; if it was black, it was standard; and if it was blue, it was the fastest. That rule that helped us Easily identify USB-A generations It’s gone. The arrival of new standards, charging functions and brand marketing has meant that today we find a wide range of green, orange and purple ports that no longer mean much. Image: StorageReview The original color code. The current chaos, as we explain in our guide to the USB standardit was not planned. The USB-IF organization tried to standardize it: white corresponds to USB 1.x, black for USB 2.0 (480 Mbps), and blue (or turquoise) for fast USB 3.0 (5 Gbps). First confusion. That is a product of the charging ports: the first problem came when colors began to be used to indicate power functions, not just data transmission. This is how the yellow, orange or red ports arrived. These usually indicate an “Always on” or “Sleep & Charge” function, which means that the port continues to provide power even when the computer is turned off or in sleep. More speed, more colors. To differentiate USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) and 3.2 (20 Gbps), the standard suggested the color turquoise blue, or failing that, red. Here the system began to leak. And the final blow came from marketing. A purple USB cable for a Huawei device indicates that it supports SuperCharge, its fast charging technology. Image: Reddit The rule became extinct completely when the brands decided use colors as corporate identity. The most famous case is that of Razer, which dyes its ports a characteristic lime green. Likewise, if you see a purple port, it’s probably from Huawei. The Chinese manufacturer uses them to identify its devices compatible with SuperCharge (its fast charging system), although technically it is still a USB 3.1 port. Chaos also in names. If there is already a mess with the colors, there is also a mess with the names: USB-IF itself has contributed by renaming the standards. USB 3.0 was renamed “USB 3.1 Gen 1” and is now “USB 3.2 Gen 1.” In parallel, USB 3.1 is now “USB 3.2 Gen 2”. This makes it almost impossible for a user to know what they are buying without looking at the fine print, a mess that the Wi-Fi Alliance solved much more elegantly. with standards such as Wi-Fi 5, 6 or the most recent Wi-Fi 7. The real culprit: USB-C. The final nail in the color coding coffin is the USB-C connector. It’s just a reversible connector, but what’s inside is chaos: the same USB-C port can be a slow USB 2.0, a USB 3.2 or a very fast Thunderbolt 4. The only way to differentiate them is to look for the lightning bolt logo that characterized Apple. Or read the device’s spec sheet because color, unfortunately, no longer means anything. Image | Xataka In Xataka | How to prepare a USB to use it on your mobile phone, tablet or Smart TV and expand its memory

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