Recode by Vox to Launch Week-Long Coverage on Tech’s Role in Combating Climate Change

Learn about the new and overlooked technology that may help clean up our future.

As the climate crisis continues to worsen, it’s easy to say that technology has the potential to save the planet. The tricky thing is that we can often blame the unfettered use of technology — everything from steam engines to jet planes — for creating and exacerbating the climate crisis to begin with. Over the next week, Recode by Vox will publish a series of stories that highlight both new and overlooked technology that may be able to clean up our future and help undo environmental damage — including climate challenges created by tech itself.

“A package on the intersection of tech and climate was a natural fit for us as an outlet deeply committed to solutions-focused journalism,” said Adam Clark Estes, deputy editor of Recode. “This week’s coverage aims to give our readers an in-depth understanding of some of the innovations we need to embrace — including those in unexpected places — to mitigate the crisis.”

Vox’s approach to this week’s coverage was to not just speak with tech experts, but also to those who are leveraging technology to affect change. We sent our team into the field to see first-hand how these innovations were being put into practice. That included one reporter visiting a hydrogen fuel station in San Francisco, and another spending several days diving with scientists to see them in action as they work to bring back our coral reefs.

Contributors include Neel Dhanesha on the daunting task of making cryptocurrency climate-friendly, as well as the climate solution hiding in our oil wells; Rebecca Heilweil on how to build a better battery; Benji Jones on the race to resurrect coral reefs; and Umair Irfan on zero-emissions shipping, as well as the dream of scaling up the use of hydrogen energy.