Speed limit could save more CO₂ than expected
The Federal Environment Agency has presented the conclusion of the study “Liquid Transport for Climate Protection and Air Pollution Control”. The study comes to the conclusion that a general speed limit on German autobahns would save significantly more CO₂ than previously assumed. With a speed limit of 120 km/h, 6.7 million tons less CO₂ would be released into the environment each year, according to the paper. The savings would only partly come directly from the deceleration. A significant part is due to the fact that a speed limit would make the Autobahn less attractive. Traffic would be concentrated on more direct routes, using country roads rather than freeways.
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Data leak at Paypal
Paypal is currently informing affected customers about a data leak. Attackers tested numerous access data in a credential stuffing attack and thus gained access to around 35,000 customer accounts. The criminals were then able to read the customers’ names, their addresses, social security numbers, tax identification numbers and dates of birth. PayPal claims to have reset the passwords of successfully compromised accounts and implemented advanced security checks. So far, nothing indicates that the data has been misused or that there have been unauthorized transactions on the Paypal accounts.
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More and more light pollution
Light pollution is much worse worldwide than previously thought, with the night sky getting brighter by almost ten percent every year on average. This was discovered by a team from the German Research Center for Geosciences on behalf of the US research center NOIRLab. The result showed that analyzes based on satellite measurements clearly underestimated the extent of light pollution. Over large parts of the earth’s surface, after sunset, the sky no longer shows the light of the stars and the moon at night, but glows due to artificial light sources. The artificially lit night sky negatively impacts human health and wildlife, NOIRLab explains, because it interrupts the natural transition from sunlight to starlight under which life evolved.
Fuel cell aircraft succeeds in maiden flight
The British-US American aviation company ZeroAvia has successfully completed the maiden flight of a Dornier 228 converted to fuel cell technology. According to the company, the twin-engine aircraft stayed in the air for ten minutes. It is currently the world’s largest aircraft powered by fuel cells. An application for approval is to be submitted to the British aviation authority before the end of this year, and the engine could then be used in commercial aircraft in 2025.
(igr)
