I bought a glowing plant. It led me down a rabbit hole of radiant mushrooms, 19th century experiments and a modern rivalry between scientists in Russia and the Americas.

Clayton Page Aldern is a former neuroscientist turned environmental journalist. He is currently a senior data reporter at the climate magazine Grist. His work focuses on the intersection of climate change and human health, particularly the neurological impacts of environmental factors.

Below, Clayton shares five key insights from his new book, The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains.

There are a handful of states that are doing a great job crafting solar policy that makes it affordable and accessible for homeowners and renters alike to go solar. No state has created the perfect set of legislative conditions that make it easier or cheaper for residents to install solar panels, but these are the states that have the best solar incentives right now.

When looking at the majority of comments going on certain online forums you can end up thinking that the vast majority of solarpunks all think the same way on certain issues.

Whether it’s plant-based diets, or the role of traditional media it can seem like 80%+ of the people are in agreement, sometimes very strong agreement and denounce alternative interpretations as not solarpunk at all.

This is why the pioneering research by Benjamin Maldonado Fernandez is so interesting. As part of his studies at the university of Leiden he conducted a survey of people in the solarpunk scene which gained 571 respondents, making it one of the largest, if not the largest so far. It had a wide range of questions which you can see all of in the published results here.

We interviewed Benjamin to unpack some of the findings of the survey.

Cooling represents 20% of global electricity demand in buildings, a share that’s expected to rise as the planet warms and more of the world turns to cooling technology. During peak demand hours, air conditioners can account for over half the total demand on the grid in some parts of the world today.

New cooling technologies that incorporate energy storage could help by charging themselves when renewable electricity is available and demand is low, and still providing cooling services when the grid is stressed.

Scientists from across academic disciplines are extremely concerned about climate change. Many of them have already changed their own lifestyles or engaged in advocacy and protest, with even more being willing to do so in future.

This is evident from a large-scale survey of scientists from all over the world, conducted by an international research team led by the University of Amsterdam. The researchers not only looked at the views of scientists and the extent to which they are engaged in climate action, but also at how the involvement of scientists with climate change can be increased.

For the first time ever, California's batteries took over gas as the primary source for supplying evening power demand in April, providing "akin to the output from seven large nuclear reactors" one evening, according to the New York Times.

These records were broken in the Californian spring, when there was plenty of sunshine without the summer heat that causes people to turn on the air-conditioning and consume more power, but it's a sign of the shift underway.

Recent research has revealed a fascinating phenomenon: bioluminescence is more prevalent among deep-sea shrimp than previously recognized. The study has identified 157 species with the ability to emit light, expanding our understanding by 65% compared to earlier estimates.

These shrimp illuminate the ocean depths in various ways – some by ejecting glowing secretions, others through sophisticated organs in their bodies designed specifically for light production, and a few employing both methods.

A solarpunk graphic novel adapted by Michele Paris and Lorenzo Livrieri, based on the short story by Nebula Award nominated author, Renan Bernardo.

Welcome to the post-fossil fuel city of Sundyal. Lush green, high-tech, and powered by clean energy, Sundyal seems like an idyllic place. But Janet really struggle's with Sundyal's lack of affordability. In fact, she can barely afford to eat. Meanwhile her best friend, an old and now obsolete model of android named Lyria, prepares to shutdown for the final time.

But is losing Lydia forever, in fact, the only way to save her? Janet wrestles with this and whether or not it's right and justified to objectify and sell her friend like some... disposable thing? Does it matter if doing so means she can afford to stay in Sundyal? And if the price of utopia is that high and inaccessible, is it really a utopia?

A modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright future we need in , The Working, the debut #lunarpunk novel by Brightflame published by Water Dragon Publishing.

The synopsis reads:

Betsy's a modern-day Witch with an ageless problem: she's worried about screwing up her coven's ritual. Again. But the coven has a bigger issue to face — the destruction of their home thanks to a fracked gas pipeline. And then an even bigger problem — a greed-fueled entity will soon obliterate Earth’s ability to support life.

Tarot cards indicate the coven must sort among allies and threats, human and ethereal.

Follow Betsy, Sail, Fire, Mari, and Tal as they disentangle the truth and seek the magic to avert the cataclysm.

Fans of The Once and Future Witches and The City We Became will love The Working for its feminist, justice-seeking, ensemble cast. Readers hail The Working for its diverse characters, real magical practice, and tilt towards hope.

For 31 straight days last summer, temperatures in Phoenix hit or topped 110 degrees, the longest such streak ever. That searing Arizona heat dehydrates crops and evaporates water the state needs to conserve.

Creating shade is one way to combat the problem.

By using solar panels, farmers can simultaneously protect their plants, save water and lower their energy bills – and some are doing just that with help from federal programs designed to encourage this sustainable method of growing.

Photovoltaic panels are placed above the crops, harnessing the sun’s energy while providing valuable shade.

Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have discovered a new method to increase the efficiency of solar cells by a factor of 1,000. The team of scientists achieved this breakthrough by creating crystalline layers of barium titanate, strontium titanate, and calcium titanate, which were alternately placed on top of one another in a lattice structure.