Day: January 9, 2019

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

January 9, 2019 at 07:54AM

Need to have a conversation with someone in a language other than the one you know? Google Assistant is getting an Interpreter Mode that will provide real-time translations over audio, while also showing written translations if using a smart display.

You can kick off an Interpreter Mode session by simply saying “Hey Google, be my French interpreter,” to which it will then fire up its French skills. Assuming you are standing next to someone who speaks French, you’ll have an easier time understanding one another.

This very much seems like a further expansion of the real-time translations that Google has been pushing over the past year, first through the Pixel Buds and then other headphones. And that’s a good thing!

This new mode will rollout over the next few weeks.

// Google

WASHINGTON — U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, spiked last year after falling for the previous three, as cold weather spurred natural gas demand for heating and as the economy pushed planes and trucks to guzzle fuel, an estimate released on Tuesday showed.

The Rhodium Group, an independent research group, said emissions rose 3.4 percent in 2018, the biggest jump since 2010, when the economy bounced back from the Great Recession.

Rhodium said the boost from the world’s second-biggest carbon emitter after China could make it harder for the United States to meet reductions targets it set under the Paris Agreement in 2015. To do so, the United States would have to cut energy-related carbon emissions by 2.6 percent on average over the next seven years, a pace more than twice that achieved between 2005 and 2017.

“It is certainly feasible, but will likely require a fairly significant change in policy in the very near future, and/or favorable market and technological conditions,” the group said.

The spike occurred even though 2018 brought a record number of shutdowns of power plants fired by coal, the fuel richest in carbon output when burned.

Natural gas, which emits about half the carbon of coal, replaced most of the lost coal generation. But it also served the vast majority of load growth for electricity last year, the report said.

The Trump administration, which has announced its intent to leave the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, is relaxing Obama-era rules on emissions from power plants and vehicles as it seeks to boost production of oil, gas and coal. The earliest the administration can leave the accord is after the 2020 presidential election.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not respond to questions about the Rhodium report, saying it would only answer queries related to the partial federal government shutdown or about environmental emergencies.

Trump administration officials have said that emissions can waiver from year to year depending on the economy, but that the country can both cut emissions and enjoy a strong economy at the same time.

Environmentalists say the Trump administration needs to speed up the transition from natural gas to renewables such as wind and solar power and energy storage.

“Coal’s sharp-dressed cousin is continuing us on a path to irreparable and costly climate damage,” said Greg Cunningham, who works on clean energy and climate at the Conservation Law Foundation. “It is imperative that we shift our clean energy transition into high gear and accelerate our clean car standards to reverse this trend.”

The American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying organization for the U.S. oil and gas industry, says it does not take a position on forming a carbon tax, which some environmentalists, politicians in both parties and petroleum companies say would harness the power of capitalism to reduce emissions. The API backs voluntary efforts to reduce emissions.

Mike Sommers, the head of API, told reporters in a conference call that the United States can boost oil and gas and cut emissions at the same time.

Reporting by Timothy Gardner

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LONDON — Canada-based Carbon Engineering said on Wednesday it had received investment from a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp. and the venture capital arm of Chevron Corp. for its technology that removes carbon dioxide directly from the air.

Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and Chevron Technology Ventures, the venture capital division of Chevron Corporation, have invested an undisclosed sum in Carbon Engineering’s so-called direct air capture (DAC) technology.

Founded in 2009, Carbon Engineering developed technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere and converts it into low-carbon fuels for transport and for use in enhanced oil recovery.

The firm has been removing CO2 from the atmosphere since 2015 at a pilot plant in British Columbia and converting it into fuel since 2017.

Carbon Engineering expects to reach its financing target of $60 million by the end of the first quarter, putting it on track to accelerate the commercialization of its technology, the firm told Reuters.

“(…) These new investments will allow us to accelerate the deployment of our DAC and AIR TO FUELS technologies,” said Steve Oldham, chief executive of Carbon Engineering (CE).

“With an increasing focus worldwide on the need for aggressive emissions reductions, CE’s technology can play a major role, and energy industry leaders like Occidental and Chevron will greatly accelerate commercialization of CE’s technology,” he added.

Extracting vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could help to limit global warming, blamed for causing more heatwaves, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels.

The costs of such technologies are high, however, and a huge number of plants would be needed to make a dent in manmade CO2 emissions.

Reporting by Nina Chestney

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